Wrong direction!

As a child brought up in the nineties, I recognise and understand the hype around boy bands, mainly because I lived through it.

I remember the admiration and loyalty I had for the Backstreet Boys when I was a preteen and the posters plastered on my bedroom wall of each of the members. I even clearly remember embarrassingly staring at them every night before bed, imagining that I could one day meet the boys.

If I were still a 12-year-old girl, I would probably swoon at the thought of the latest boy band to hit the market, One Direction. They’re young, cute, make catchy music and they get along great! So, it was only a matter of time before a movie was released about them.

However, This Is Us is testimony that boy bands should stay in the nineties. Forgive me ‘Directioners’, but One Direction is not the latest answer to The Beatles, regardless of what you may have read.

I went into the theatre with the mindset of a young teenager, expecting to learn interesting new facts about the boys. I already knew a few things about them from The UK X Factor, so I thought the film wouldn’t be too bad.

I was completely wrong! Not only did it not share anything new about the band members, but it was so boring.
 
The only problems the boys’ face is how to handle their emotions while away from family while touring the world and what to do with the millions they have earned.

OK, I may be a little jealous that someone younger than me makes considerably more money than I do and use a small fraction of it to buy their parents a big new house, but I watched this movie for the sappy stories that would make me fall in love with them, not envy and eventually hate them.

This movie is for the fans who will never have the opportunity to attend one of their concerts … it’s 92 minutes of the boys on stage, mocking dance movies and singing songs about love … in 3D!

With that being said, they had their fun moments that made me chuckle and a few of the forgotten members (Liam and Louis) had the opportunity to shine.

Not to mention, I now see why the girls love Harry so much … what a cutie pie!

The movie focuses on the Brit sensations who refer to themselves as a ‘cool boy band’. It focuses on how each of them represents a stereotypical personality of the group. Zayn as the mysterious one, Harry as the lady’s boy, Niall as the cute boy next door … and then there’s Liam and Louis, who are yet to find where they lie.

The film’s most honest moments are when the camera focuses on the family relationships. Zayn had promised his mother he would buy her a house one day and he did. Harry’s parents are amazed at being flown to places they would have never visited if it wasn’t for Harry taking them there and then there’s the ‘emotional scenes’ when the other parents speak of how their children have grown up too fast and have left them behind for the real world.

Of course, there’s the clip describing the journey of how the five boys auditioned separately on the TV talent show. After being booted off, music mogul Simon Cowell asked them to come back … but this time as a group.

Hesitant at first, they spent nights getting to know each other and now ‘they can’t imagine life’ without each other!

After very short scenes of how they feel about fame and the crazy fans, the rest of the film focuses on them performing to screaming girls and their accompanying guardians wearing ear plugs to protect their fragile hearing.

This Is Us does not give you in insight into the band, it provides insight into what being a rich teenager can be like … and although I’m jealous of the money, I would never want the fame the boys have and I pity them, some of those girl fans are pretty scary.

I would say the boys failed to live up to Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never! But one thing’s for sure, One Direction will never ‘Quit Playing Games’ with young girls’ hearts … until the next big thing.