Honestly?... Not the Greatest!

Rating: 4/10 (27 February 2019)

Well I am giving this a 4 & this is for the superb acting alone!
I love Huge Jackman & the rest of the cast, who all did an excellent job, but I feel their efforts were wasted with no character development, a very poor screenplay & poorly executed plot. There was so much promise with this movie too, I got the feeling wasting that promise with bad writing was almost a crime! This movie is certainly a "Moulin Rouge" for children!
Now lets face facts here Barnum was NOT a very nice character, & this could have been explored better. A very well respect monarch, Queen Victoria is displayed as a sneering, giggling characture & Jenny Lind was NOT some man hungry, marriage wrecker! But by far the worst aspect of this film is the music. Too loud, too auto-tuned, & all the songs sounded the same with the same droning message of "We can do this, inclusive, empowered people" followed with a deafening chorus & a bang! The only song I did actually like was the foot stomping one, (can't recall the name though) & the only scene I really liked was Zendaya & the trapeze which was done beautifully, & impressively. As for the rest of it, it felt like an overly long pop video.
The very scarce spoken dialogue was also far too quiet & just as you are trying to adjust your bleeding ears from the music, you can't hear a thing, which is annoying as you are unable to follow the plot (not that there was one!) The only other likable aspect was the awesome costumes even if they were not historically accurate.
Well, if you enjoy overly loud in your face fluffy pop songs, rainbows, unicorns & safe spaces then this just might be the movie for you, however, those of us who are old enough to recognize an invisible plot, bad screenplay & have delicate hearing, avoid this one at all costs!
Finally, a BIG well done to the whole cast! You did your very best! x