Mediocre and weak

Rating: 5/10 (17 January 2018)

Ladies and gentlemen, The Greatest Showman is not great. The plot, although loosely based on real life person P.T.Barnum (who, based on his Wikipedia page, had an interesting, controversial life), is weak and predictable, the characters are uncompelling and underdeveloped, the songs are mostly forgettable.
1. the main plot - nothing we haven't seen before. It is mainly a love story: boy meets girl, boy is poor but has ambitions, oh and there is a circus show in the background. As this movie is loosely biographical, there were many aspects in P.T.Barnum's surely eventful life the movie could have borrowed and explored, but instead it settled for soapy clichÃ©s.
2. the subplots - forbidden love, society acceptance, parental acceptance, inequality, rich vs poor, herd mentality, racism are all worthy themes that are lightly touched in this movie but are not explored, don't get much screen time or development and are presented in a stereotypical manner.
3. the characters - no character stands out. There are no great "good guys" and no great "villains". The main characters are not compelling, the supporting characters (mainly the circus people) barely have names or lines. The circus people are just backup dancers in this movie, they don't have backstories and we don't even get to see their show numbers really, only some show finale dance routines here and there, nothing more. Besides the bearded lady and the trapeze girl who do get their own songs, rest of the show people are interchangeable and inconsequential, a background setting.
4. the songs - just forgettable, not bad, not great, not ones that make you want to go immediately and buy the movie soundtrack (like Moulin Rouge or Chicago for example). Likewise, the dance routines are good but not spectacular. Only exception for me is the "everything you ever want, everything you ever need" tune, that one did get stuck for a while.
6. the actors - are good. I personally didn't care for Hugh Jackman's singing voice, but he is a good actor. Michele Williams looks great in this film, but I guess don't have enough material to work with to show range and gives an overall forgettable performance. Zac Efron looks earnest.
6. the animals - it bothered me to see wild animals (CGI or not) like elephants and lions jumping through hoops and standing on hind legs for crowd entertainment. Historical accuracy aside, they were nowhere in the movie until the last few minutes, so adding them seemed pointless to the plot anyway and given that in present days we have much better understanding and sensitivity to animal rights and wellbeing, adding them to this family friendly film seemed a bad decision.
Bottom line, I didn't enjoy this movie and I doubt I will ever watch it again. It had potential, but it did not work for me. Go see it if you are bored and have spare change and you like musicals and watching people dance, but don't expect too much. 5 out of 10.