Had so much potential to be amazing but didn't live up to it

Rating: 5/10 (27 January 2018)

I was really excited about seeing this film. I had heard good things about it and I knew that it was the same songwriters that were involved in La La Land which is one of my favourite films and so I went in to this with high expectations. And I was extremely disappointed.
The Greatest Showman is a Michael Gracey film starring Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron and Zendaya. It follows the story of P.T. Barnum and his journey with the circus and show business.
Let's start with the things I did like.
I thought that the cinematography was beautiful, the vibrant colours, the moments of slow motion and the visual effects were stunning. If you are a particularly visual person when it comes to films, I would recommend this film to you.
I also liked the dance routines throughout the film. There is a particular moment with Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams on a rooftop that is really lovely choreography and a routine with Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron that I thought was very well done.
The acting was generally not bad, it was well cast and I thought that the actors all fit the roles very well.The story was generally entertaining, though fairly simple.
Now onto the things that I didn't like:
As a musical, I was expecting the music to be good. However, I felt that the lyrics were reasonably uncreative and the general sound of the music felt, almost, too polished for the context of the film. The thing that makes musicals like La La Land so good is that the songs feel a little rough around the edges (although obviously still well performed) and that's what makes them believable and vulnerable.
Also, my first thought about the music in this film was that the songs all sounded kind of the same to me. I figured that was just me not quite paying attention in the moment, but going and listening back to them now I still feel as though there's not much variety in the dynamics of the soundtrack. I feel like they needed some quieter, simpler moments to contrast the big, powerful numbers so that they have more impact.
I was expecting this film to explore topics like equality and being proud of who you are. And while they sort of touched on these, they were never really explored properly. In particular, the romance in the film that could have easily been an exploration of racial segregation preventing the couple from being together, but it was just never really developed and was instead just a very shallow, half-hearted romantic sub-plot with no real impact.
I spent the whole film feeling as though it was missing something stylistically and it took me a while to figure out what that was. It was missing an element of madness in the way that it was filmed. When I think of the circus I think of garish colours, loud noises and a bit of chaos. However I didn't feel chaotic to me. It was as if they needed to take some inspiration from Baz Luhrmann's style in films like Moulin Rouge where it does feel a bit mad but it fits the setting so well. But everything felt too polished and nice and it just made it seem unbelievable.
Overall it wasn't terrible but I felt as though it had the potential to be so much better.