Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Movie Review

We saw Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour in theatres — here’s what we thought

By Max Balzer and Soleil Weis

Max’s Review —

When pop superstar Taylor Swift announced her groundbreaking tour at the end of last year, demand skyrocketed through the roof and friendship bracelet production increased tenfold. Swift had been on a religious biennial album-tour release schedule since 2006’s Taylor Swift until 2014’s 1989 in which she consistently released an album and toured it. In 2016, she deviated from the album release schedule when she didn’t release an album and recused herself from public view until 2017’s Reputation, based upon her experience with negative media scrutiny. After touring Reputation, she released 2019’s Lover alongside plans for the album’s tour Lover Fest, which was later cancelled in early 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic increasingly became a threat to the tour. During the pandemic, Swift released 2020’s Folklore and Evermore, and 2022’s Midnights, resulting in her leaving Lover, Folklore, Evermore and Midnights without their turn on the stage. In November of 2022, Swift announced a marathon tour of 52 dates around the US, releasing a setlist of 44 songs from across her nine different ‘Eras,’ from 2008’s Fearless all the way to 2022’s Midnights. The show was structured as a ‘journey’ through each Era , setting them apart as succinct acts in the show, spanning a total of almost three-and-a-half hours on stage. 

After the conclusion of North America’s 52-show leg of the Eras Tour, Swift announced the release of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, a concert film shot at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, the final stop of the North American leg. After the release, it was revealed that along with the excitement of the release came a calculated production strategy for the film — with the Swift family double-crossing major studios and going straight to the theatres. The Swifts cut a deal with AMC Theatres in the US that allowed them to have the film produced independently and sent straight to theatres, cutting out the ‘middle-man’ in the operation entirely. Taylor Swift allegedly spent close to $20 million for the production and marketing of the film, and the deal set out that 43% of the revenue generated from the film stays with the theatres, and the remaining 57% gets split between AMC Theatres and the Swifts. Naturally, along with the excitement that was there with the announcement of the tour, it was there too with the announcement of the film.

I saw the film on opening night in IMAX which, long story short, was a fantastic experience. The film started with a beautiful intro drone shot over the stadium while an epic version of Swift’s song Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince started, with excerpts from songs and names of albums from throughout her career. Pink-rainbow clouds appeared as the shot flew through the title of the film and approached the glimmering stadium, as the Lover Era started. Swift’s pink, colorful, lovey-dovey album from 2019 starts off the show, including the newly fan-favourite song Cruel Summer that got a massive boost in popularity as the first full-length song of the show and possibly her biggest sleeper hit of all time, prompting her to release it as a single four years later.

Next in the show was the Fearless era, Swift’s 2008 claim-to-fame. Swift performed the three favourites — Fearless, You Belong With Me and Love Story. The stars of the marathon show were The Starlights, Swift’s four backup vocalists. Throughout the show, they adjusted to the nine different eras seamlessly and always maintained a consistent set of quirky details and mannerisms that helped them feel like a succinct group in themselves. Afterwards was the Evermore era, where everything slowed down a lot. It was okay, but felt incomplete and like it was planned with a lacking focus on it. This was the part of the show that got me bored and like the show had already peaked and was going downhill — a half hour in. However, once I made it through the Evermore Era, that’s when it got really good. The Reputation Era started with fan-favourite …Ready For It?, and intensified the show with Delicate, Don’t Blame Me and Look What You Made Me Do. Once the snakes were out and the edge was on, the show really started. Swift carried onto the Speak Now Era with a beautiful performance of Enchanted, followed by the Red Era with her signature 22 hat being given to a new fan every night. The fan-favourite Folklore Era came next, followed by an exciting and creative 1989 Era with light-up golf clubs and Swift’s dancers riding bikes around the stage. Finally, Swift picks two songs from her discography to play, trying to perform a new two each night. The two selected for the night were You’re On Your Own, Kid from 2022’s Midnights and Our Song from 2006’s Taylor Swift. Finally, the viral stage dive transition came next to bring us into the final Era of the night, Midnights. Swift played seven songs from Midnights, the most of any Era throughout the show.

A chart displaying my level of enjoyment by act in the show

I loved Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. I thought it was phenomenally filmed, with immense production value and edited cleanly so it flowed well. Before each new Era, there were motion graphics that called in the new act in the show. Swift cut five songs from the show, presumably for length, that are usually on the setlist. She cut The Archer from Lover, (one of my favourites), ‘tis the damn season from Evermore, Long Live from Speak Now, cardigan from folklore and Wildest Dreams from 1989. Even without these songs, it was a pleasure to watch and really a really exciting atmosphere in the stadium — people dressed up and were up and dancing and singing along the whole time. It was a really well made production and was a fantastic alternative to going in-stadium, if you weren’t able to get tickets or (like me), wasn’t quite invested enough. This was a 10/10 experience and I’d recommend it any day — Taylor Swift is something else.

Soleil’s Review —

As someone who has been a huge fan of taylor since the 1989 Era  in 2014, I had been patiently waiting for taylor to announce another tour after lover fest was cancelled. Three albums were already released, and I was nervous on how she would make the tour work. So, when she announced US dates on November 1st of 2022, I knew that the demand would be way higher than the last time I had seen her live, way back in 2018 for the reputation tour. When the presale finally went live, I tried so hard to get tickets, and I was devastated when I saw that the queue had crashed and I had wasted all that time, getting zero tickets. There were many other times when I tried getting tickets to the Eras tour, but It always ended the same way. I was devastated, until August 31st, 2023 when Taylor had announced that she was bringing the Eras tour to theatres near me, and I knew I had to get tickets for opening night. It took a while, but I was finally going to see the eras you (kind of) and here was my review of it overall.

The way Taylor opened the show off with miss americana and the heartbreak prince was perfect. Hearing the compilation of different album names while Taylor was singing “it's been a long time coming” felt like an out of body experience. The way she transitioned into cruel summer was amazing and everybody in the crowd was so hyped up to scream at the top of their lungs. The whole lover setlist was amazing, and I loved it when she was talking and building up to singing the man. A few complaints I have with this setlist was that ME! Wasn't a part of it. I know ME! Gets a lot of hate online, however it's such a fun song and is so catchy. I also noticed while watching the movie that The archer got cut from the movie, even though it was on the setlist, which I was not very happy with because in my opinion, the archer is one of the best songs off of lover, and I- along with everyone in the crowd- were so excited to sing the archer. The next part of the show was fearless, which had her three biggest hits off of the album- you belong with me, love story, and fearless.  It was truly amazing, especially when the stage turned into a guitar. I loved that when she was singing you Belong with me, the camera cut to her guitarist Paul, who has been with her since her debut era. She did an amazing electric guitar solo and it was so great that he got his time to shine. Next was her 2020 album Evermore, in which she played champagne problems, tolerate it, willow, and marjorie. Unfortunately, the absolute masterpieces of the damn season  and no body no crime were cut from the movie, which was devastating. Other than that, this set was amazing. Everybody screamed champagne problems, and during marjorie, we all turned on our flashlights. Truly a great way to watch the evermore set. Of course, when choosing how to transition songs in the eras tour, taylor made the amazing decision of playing tolerate it and ready for it back to back. That's right! The rebellious, comeback Reputation era came right after the heart wrenching evermore era. The reputation set was by far my favourite. I loved how it started with ready for it, to get the crowd really hyped up. I wasn't sure if people would do callbacks for the Eras tour film since it wasn't the actual concert, but during delicate everybody screamed the 123 LBG lyric, which was such an amazing experience. Following the Reputation era was the short but sweet Speak Now era. I loved the dress that Taylor wore for this set, however I wish that she would have added a few more songs to this era. Yes, long live was added to the setlist, but the song got cut from the movie. It was played at the end during credits though, which was fun. Moving on was the RED era. This era was such a fun thing to watch. The way Taylor had different sayings on her shirt each show, and the way she gave the 22 hats to little kids in the audience was magical. The way she closed the era with all too well 10 minute version was, in my opinion, perfect. The rest of the eras were great, but my favourite part of the show was the acoustic set, better known as “surprise song o’clock. I had  found out some spoilers of songs that had been cut from the movie, but I hadn't heard about which surprise songs she was playing, so I was extremely impatient during the eras right before. Of course, the set was Our song, and you're on your own kid. These songs are both very special to me, especially You're On your own kid, and I always listen to them. I was practically screaming the lyrics when they came up. After the surprise songs, was the midnight set which was in my opinion one of the best eras she performed. All of the outfit changes, and the way the stage was set up was magnificent. I loved her performance of MastermindI, because I wasn't expecting it to be on the setlist.

The movie was shot very well. There were cameras on the floor, upper bowl, lower bowl, and even on the stage. It was perfect for people in the theatre so they could experience every seat in the theatre. 

Overall, the experience was magical and it was a perfect way to see the eras tour without spending hundreds-and even thousands- of dollars.

By Max Balzer and Soleil Weis