Review: Katy Perry’s film satisfies pop music guilty pleasure, could have revealed more of star

Editor’s note: The following is a review that has details of the film. If you don’t want to know details about this film then stop reading now.

You don’t need to be a doctor to know that too much candy will make you sick.

Too much pop music can make you ill, too.

Sometimes you just have to give into your guilty pleasures as I did late Thursday night when I went to see the 3-D version of “Katy Perry: Part of Me.”

As I got out of the car I put on my dark blue UTEP baseball cap. I told myself it was because my hair was disheveled.

Maybe, just maybe, I was hoping the hat would hide my identity a bit.

I walked into the theater and saw only a handful – maybe 20 or so – people were seated.

After a string of 3-D previews a full video version of “You’re the One that I Want” from “Grease” was played, complete with lyrics.

I started to squirm.

“What the hell have I gotten myself into? Is it too late to go see ‘Magic Mike?'” I thought.

Finally, the feature film started with several videos of young Perry fans talking about what she and her music means to them.

The final video is Perry as a teenager talking about her dreams.

And off we go into Perry’s fairytale world. The film goes back and forth between concert footage and interviews with Perry, her family and friends.

Think of an expanded Behind the Music mashed with a True Hollywood Story.

You can’t help but smile as she smiles. Believe me, I tried – and I can be a regular Debbie Downer with a frown to match.

Early on we get a glimpse of Perry’s then-husband Russell Brand as she pulls him into her pre-concert team huddle. There was a bit of an “oh” moment in the theater during this scene.

Like it or not, Brand would end up being the villain in this fairytale. It’s hard to argue with that notion given Perry would fly from Europe to Los Angeles during four-day breaks on her tour and Brand never seemed to go to her.

Before we get to that inevitable split between the two we learn about Perry’s Christian music career, her discovery of rock music through Alanis Morrissete’s “You Outta Know,” and industry people trying to mold her into what they want.

She dared to talk back to the hitmakers The Matrix!

Her career takes off and she’s 400 or so days into the California Dreams Tour when we finally begin to see the cracks as her marriage begins to falter.

She cries in a makeup chair as she takes off her wedding ring, then cries in the team huddle. And as she’s about to rise up through the hole on stage she seems on the verge of another breakdown before she starts smiling and performs.

The show must go on.

Songs that are seemingly about the death of her marriage are shown performed in concert but it’s not shown how they are created. All of a sudden they are just there.

The film is a mostly fun and happy romp that much satisfied my sweet tooth, although there wasn’t enough 3-D in it to warrant seeing it in 3-D.

It was certainly not Metallica’s “Some Kind of Monster” or Radiohead’s “Meeting People is Easy” but it was an interesting look into Perry’s life and career.

Next time she should peel the curtain back just a tad more and let us see a greater part of her – the songwriter part.