Enchanted
Taylor Swift is arguably the most iconic pop artist of the 21st century. You cannot go an entire 24 hours without hearing something about her. I began to check out the hype in the middle of 2023 as I marathoned through all of her albums totaling roughly 13 hours on a car ride to wedding. Needless to say, I understood the hype. The decision to release her recent Eras Tour was met with acclaim, but it was also a stroke of brilliant marketing. She didn’t have to go through any studios or channels to do it, she could just release the concert in theaters without any politics. Not only is she a pop icon for the century, but also changing the game of how films can be delivered.
Sure this is a concert, and no actual plot or story to follow. That doesn’t stop this from being a SUPER entertaining theatrical experience! It feels weird to review a concert, but for a monumental event such as this how could you not?
For the small percentage of you that may not know, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is a culmination of all of Taylor Swift’s past albums being performed in one show. While not all of her songs are performed from each of her albums, she goes through each one to sing some of her more well known (and a few of the ones she hasn’t performed yet).
Taylor Swift is quite the performer! She puts on an excellent show and experiencing this in the theater was definitely a memorable experience. While it certainly cannot compare to seeing the concert live and in action, this is the next best thing (and quite affordable as well). Everything works to make this a great show, the costume changes, the commitment to the performance, the transitions between the eras, and just the fun of being at a concert.
As someone who does enjoy Taylor Swift, I would certainly say my favorite album by her is Speak Now and it was sad to see that only one song from that album was played. It is evident that she wanted to prioritize her albums of Folklore and Evermore since she hasn’t gotten a chance to perform those yet. It was nice, though, to have her perform some of her more iconic songs including my favorites in Miss Americana, All Too Well (10 minute version obviously), Cruel Summer, August, etc. There’s so many to name and honestly, I enjoyed the whole thing.
Some people reading this may be surprised that I am reviewing a Taylor Swift concert, let alone for me to be a fan. But as mentioned above, this is a monumental achievement for the theater industry. Normally, directors have to go through so many different movie companies (Warner Bros., Universal, Spyglass, etc.) in order to get a movie released and they have so much say in the process. Taylor Swift just released this with no repercussions. In fact, other movies moved their release date because of this. It’s an inspiring thing to see for future filmmakers as they have constantly had their content dulled and diminished by movie companies. Hopefully, we see more of this kind of groundbreaking release in the future.
Nonetheless, the concert was a ton of fun and I had a blast seeing it in 2023 in the theaters. Sure, it’s not the film in a traditional sense but we go to be immersed and captivated and that’s what happened during this show. If you get a chance to see it in person on in theaters, you won’t regret it.
(A) Groundbreaking
Raj Reviews 