Not Nearly as "Profound" or "Original" As Some Would Have You Believe

Rating: 5/10 (19 March 2017)

How a story this predictable got some much Oscar love, I will never understand. As soon as you grasp who these characters are, you know exactly how it's going to all play out. The "tortured artist", the "courtesan with a good heart", the "evil rich guy"....even if the very first line of the movie didn't spoil the ending, it's as predictable as the sun rising in the morning.
Now, to be fair, I do have to give credit to the amazing sets and the remarkable choreography of some of the musical numbers. I didn't particularly enjoy the music arrangements in the movie but if you did, fair enough. I'm not going to call you stupid for that, I just enjoy the originals better.
But I just can't forgive the beat-for-beat, scene-by-scene predictability of this movie. It never goes anywhere other then where you expect to go. And what's the oh-so-inspirational, oh-so- original thought the movie builds to? "Love is good". Yeah, that's about it. "You should try to have love in your life because being loved feels good". Wow. That's right up there with "Water is wet". Look, the style of the movie is impressive, there's no denying it (in fact, it's enough to pull into the "average" ranking for me) but the characters and the story are so weak, it can't rise above that.