Cats film 'prompts cinema walkouts' after bad reviews

The new adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical has received a critical mauling
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Cinemagoers are reportedly walking out of screenings of the film adaptation of Cats, following a slew of negative reviews.

Twitter users have shared anecdotes of film fans allegedly leaving screenings of Tom Hooper’s new movie, which was inspired by the Andrew Lloyd Webber stage show.

The film uses “digital fur technology” to transform stars including Idris Elba, Judi Dench and Taylor Swift into anthropomorphised cats, with the resulting effect described by the Standard’s film critic as “nearly as obscene as The Human Centipede.”

“The best part of our showing of CATS was about 2/3rds of the way through when a man in the audience stood up, said "this movie is bad and I'm leaving", and walked out while everyone applauded him,” one social media user claimed in a tweet which has so far received more than 1,700 likes.

Another alleged: “Cats may be the worst movie I have ever seen. 10 people started in theater, and 5 people walked out by the movie’s midway point. I’m 100% having a nightmare tonight.”

Earlier this week, The Hollywood Reporter claimed that a new version of the film with improved visual effects will soon be rolled out into cinemas, according to a memo from Universal, after the initial version featured some scenes showing Dench’s hand wearing a wedding ring.

At the film’s premiere earlier this month, Hooper, who received the Best Director Oscar for The King’s Speech in 2011, revealed that he had finished the edit the morning before Cats’ debut screening after working on it for 36 hours straight.

The $100 million (£77 million) movie debuted fourth on the North American box office chart, taking just $6.5 million (£5 million).

In the UK and Ireland, it grossed £3.4 million.

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