“A messianic mess” Megalopolis by Francis Ford Coppola is one of the worst sci-fi films of 2024: the press is clear!

News culture “A messianic mess” Megalopolis by Francis Ford Coppola is one of the worst sci-fi films of 2024: the press is clear!

No surprise for Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now). Megalopolis only grossed $4 million in the U.S. for its opening weekendan economic disaster when we know that the 83-year-old director financed his film himself to the tune of 120 million. The story is nevertheless attractive. A Roman epic in modern America. The city of New Rome must change but a conflict will break out between an architect (Adam Driver), with the power to stop time, and a very conservative mayor (Giancarlo Esposito). The mayor’s daughter (Nathalie Emmanuel), in love with the architect, will have the difficult task of discovering the best for humanity.

The press is unanimous…

Megalopolis was presented in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Even though the director received a standing ovation at the end of the screening, negative reviews were quick to emerge. The famous media Télérama headlines “Coppola’s monumental megalomania” or “Cata Coppola”. For the newspaper, it is “difficult to understand its history and on arrival, we fall from a height”. Le Parisien is of the same opinion, believing that the director signs “a mega-disappointment”, the fault of a “disjointed story and grotesque scenes”.

Released in theaters on September 25 in France, the film failed to reverse the trend. Worse, the media all seem to be heading towards the same conclusion. For the magazine specializing in cinema news Première, “visual and narrative experiments never succeed in masking a point of confounding naivety”. Same conclusion from Libération, “Megalopolis is everywhere and nowhere”. The daily 20minutes even states that “the result is more of an industrial disaster than an ambitious work”. There is no shortage of adjectives in the French press to describe Coppola’s new film. We can particularly note the “memorable fiasco” d’Ecran Large, “the puffy opera” from Nouvel Obs or even a “terrible nanar” by BFMTV.

…and the notes too

If the film has not convinced the media, it is even further from convincing spectators in France but also internationally. On Allociné, the film received a 3.2/5 from the press but above all a very low rating of 2.3/5 from spectators. Likewise, Megalopolis only obtains 50% recommendations on Rotten Tomatoes from the specialized press and a score of 55/100 on Metacritic given by the media. Viewer ratings do not exceed 50% on both respective sites.

Accusations against Coppola

Even before the film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, Megalopolis was at the heart of a scandal. In an investigation published by The Guardian, Francis Ford Coppola’s behavior on set was considered very inappropriate by members of the crew. Even more serious, he allegedly pushed certain women to sit on his lap, even going so far as to try to kiss extras. The film’s co-producer, Darren Demter, said he “didn’tnever became aware of any complaints of harassment or bad behavior during the project”. But he mentions filming a nightclub scene where the actor gave nice hugs to set the mood of the scene.