Flashy and Fun, but Not Anything Special

Rating: 5/10 (15 January 2018)

This movie has a beautiful color palette, gorgeous cinematography, and it's a fun movie to see with your family or friends. The acting is fun, the music is great, but that's about where the positives stop.
As a movie, the structure of this film is rather unbalanced. There isn't a lot of character development, expect in Hugh Jackman's character. Zac Efron's character starts as a bit of a scoundrel, he gives off a very laid back feel to his polished lifestyle, and then immediately that whole element of his character is abandoned, and traded in for a hard-working, loyal, and honest character. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, but it happened almost instantaneously, so there's almost no emotional connection to this new and improved character at all, because we didn't see his journey from becoming a high and mighty, arrogant big shot to a hard-working and honest man.
The acting for the most part is pretty well done. Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, and Zendaya definitely brought their A-Game to this movie. The only problem with acting I had was with the child actors, but that can be overlooked since they aren't really in the movie that much.
Overall, I thought this movie looked gorgeous, the costumes, lighting, and special effects were all great. It wasn't anything groundbreaking or spectacular, it was just a bit of fun. This is a great movie for kids or anyone who loves theater, but as a movie, it doesn't stand against some of the masterpieces that came out in the same year.