Confused Over the Hype

Rating: 6/10 (3 December 2017)

Call me confused, but I have a hard time with this film. I appreciate the masterful singing and dancing in the film and can agree the vibrant colors were eye catching, but how is this the Greatest Musical of all time and the #5 movie overall according to AFI? I am truly baffled how this is rated so highly. The plot was tremendously weak, but that makes sense when you learn the songs were written before the movie. I thought the film was fun and well-paced until that Broadway "Gotta Dance" number hit. I feel like that sequence is playing on a constant loop in certain inner circles of hell to torture lost souls. It's honestly a violation of the 8th Amendment because watching it was "cruel and unusual punishment" for the viewer.
I enjoyed Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor, but the whole film felt like a ego-trip for Gene Kelly. He was simply too much even if the title song was iconic. Count me out as a fan of this film along with many younger viewers. I teach a high school film class where we view 20 of the top films of all time. This film is routinely rated in the lower portion of the list by our class. I wish AFI would update their list so a different film could win the title o the Greatest Musical so I could show something else.