Review by Ian Keogh
Megalopolis is likely to be the last film from cinematic maverick Francis Ford Coppola, and has proved divisive. Beautiful looking while narratively incoherent sums up the critical consensus, so can Chris Ryall and Jacob Phillips maintain the beauty while adding coherency for a graphic novel? It’s a big ask.
We’re presented with the 21st century of an alternate world where New York is recast in terms of the Roman Empire, and it’s experiencing slow decay. Mayor Frank Cicero is keen to maintain the status quo anyway, but idealistic Cesar Catalina, genius physicist sees the need for change. The setting and names indicates Coppola’s structure with almost mythical figures acting as they might have done in legends of the gods, and they discuss matters in appropriate philosophical terms. It’s ambitious and smart, but hardly audience-friendly. The fault lines are highlighted early, leading to expectations of downfall.
These are distant people spouting dialogue and making statements evoking classical allusions, and they’re entirely unrelatable. Some motivations are clear, but the major problem sparked by the mayor’s daughter Julia going to work for his rival is almost random curiosity. It’s Ryall following the film, but it’s one of several aspects that just make him look bad. Another is ideas prominently mentioned, then leading nowhere.
If Ryall is hampered by the source material, Phillips is on a hiding to nothing. Few critics may have liked the film, but most thought it looked spectacular. To appreciate the art you’re best reading Megalopolis not having seen the film. That way it’s perfectly adequate, a story well broken down for adaptation and visually told in a way that enlivens some dull conversations. However, any reader who has seen the film will note how Phillips entirely fails to match the spectacle. He constantly closes in when the film opened out.
This is a flawed adaptation of an already flawed film, really only recommended to fans of the creators.
