Adequate as far as musicals go.

Rating: 7/10 (14 April 2017)

I'm a huge musicals fan and I went into this film expecting something quite special. There was so much build-up. So much hype. The opening sequence was incredible, despite my not being able to understand the lyrics most of the time. The dance sequence was a joy to watch. So I sat back and was ready to be impressed. It didn't happen.
Basically a romance, the story was passable. Ryan Gosling's character being a jazz zealot ass-wipe made him difficult to like. It fell into a massive hole about two-thirds in where the audience drifted off. The ending? Well it was just awful.
The singing was very average. Neither Gosling or Stone have great singing voices.
The music, which, let's face it, is quite important in a musical, was a major disappointment.
I loved the dancing, the locations, the use of vivid colors and many other things but these weren't enough to offset the lackluster music and singing
The people watched this film may not have seen the classic musicals from decades ago. Perhaps that's why the IMDb score is so high. I hope that La La Land starts a resurgence in the musical genre. If it does, they will have to be much better than this effort.