Megalopolis has, in one form or another, been stewing in the mind of Francis Ford Coppola, acclaimed director of Apocalypse Now and the Godfather trilogy, for almost half a century.

First conceived back in 1977, as a means of paralleling the fall of Rome with then-modern day America, the film has enjoyed quite the string of false starts and postponements over the years. 9/11, Covid-19 and Coppola’s own financial fallibility in the nineties each delayed Megalopolos in its lengthy journey to release. That journey ends, for better or worse, this week.

Coppola’s setting is the crumbling city of New Rome, a once heralded metropolis now in rapid decline. Adam Driver - Star Wars’ Kylo Ren - plays Cesar Catilina, the idealist and architect commissioned to demolish and rebuild New Rome for a brighter and more prosperous future.

This new, utopian New Rome is to built with the aid of Megalon, a material that grants its user command over space and time. All that stands in Cesar’s way is the arch-conservatism of the city’s mayor, Franklyn Cicero, who is played by Giancarlo Esposito.

Betwixt the two stands Nathalie Emmanuel’s Julia. She’s the mayor’s daughter and the architect’s love interest and devotes her time to questioning the meaning of life. Aubrey Plaza’s Wow Platinum loves Cesar too - she’s a local financial affairs television presenter - while Shia LaBeouf’s Clodio Pulcher has the hots for Julia. He’s Cesar’s cousin.

A generous writer might compare the plotting to that of Shakespeare. Another might call it hogwash on a $120m budget, every cent of which pulled from Coppola’s pocket and the sale of a portion of his Californian winery. Lionsgate even made him pay the marketing. The ultimate folly and an extraordinary example of visionary self belief.

Certainly, Megalopolis has divided the critics, at least half of whom have praised its astounding visual accomplishments. As for the other half, the phrase ‘mega-flop-olis’ was all too easy to coin.

Regardless, there’s no denying Coppola’s magnetism in drawing an all-star cast. Laurence Fishburne, Kathryn Hunter and Dustin Hoffman round out the smaller roles, if such exist in so grand a project. Truly it is that.

And yet, 47 years of stewing away. Longer than Driver, Emmanuel, Plaza and LaBoeuf have each been alive. Half a century on the boil. Perhaps that’s why Megalopolis feels so terrifically overcooked.