Incredibly obvious, bad script, good musical numbers

Rating: 4/10 (8 May 2014)

This is a chick flick to the bone. Now I'm not usually a fan of chick flicks, so obviously I don't like this movie.
The script is a huge cliché and it has all been done before, and you're gonna guess what happens very quickly. Small-town-girl with big dreams, goes to the city, doesn't have to fight long to get that star role she wants, has a jealous female enemy, love triangle, gets the hot guy, relationship problems follow very shortly, girl solves problems, forgives the guy and everything is fine again. The end.
The only strong parts about this movie is it's musical numbers, obviously, since that is Christina Aguilera's strong side. Since she's a pop star already, she's obligated to be a character that sings in her first (and hopefully last) movie. I'm not against singers in movies, and Aguilera is definitely not the worst I've seen, but her character is so thin and without depth that it goes bad anyway.
The songs are good (except the ones they obviously put in to have Cher and Christina sing about their current state of mind), the dancing is very nice and the costumes dashing. I only wish I had seen more of Alan Cumming. His number with the two girls were very similar to the "Two Ladies" number Cabaret. Also, the first scene in the Burlesque club is also a huge reference/rip off to Cabaret's first musical number, which sort of made me a little excited. The biggest problem I have with this movie is that the whole Burlesque club is filled with glitter and expensive costumes and enormous props, and let's face it, Tess's financial problems could've been solved right away if she got rid of even half of those stuff and just toned down the club a bit. It would still be good, the dancer's wouldn't be any worse and it's still easy to make it look good. You don't have to make a Broadway musical to make a show good.
I love the art of burlesque (both the old kind and the new kind), and this is NOT burlesque. It is a cabaret, with a little burlesque dancing. But they had to make this movie available to all the teen girls who love Aguilera out there, so actual burlesque was probably out of the question.
This movie isn't horrible, but it can't be watched with a serious eye. The poor plot and the thin script is laughable and even with great music numbers, the incredible cheesiness of it all makes me not want to see this movie again.