Brilliant moments but incoherent storytelling

Rating: 5/10 (20 December 2017)

I truly feel that there was a missed opportunity here with the greatest showman, it had great talent, music, costume design and an overall aura that feels like an extravaganza yet somehow it still falls short.
If you have seen the trailer you have likely already seen the film, there were brilliant songs and likeable characters for sure but at the end of the day the storytelling was horrendously lacking. Which is as I have said a terrible shame seeing as there was a brilliant story about acceptance and prejudice right there yet the film never seems to fully capitalize. Much like Barnum's circus was described by the characters in this film this film is definitely likeable but at the end of the day, a cheesy, popcorn shoving flick.
This film can also be described as a series of single moments of brilliance, when the film really utilized the musical aspects it really presents these visually stunning scenes yet, outside of those moments this is a very spotty film with an incoherent narrative. Indeed, the film seems to jump from scene to scene, moment to moment without any worthwhile character development or motive and without establishing much story points.
While the movie had characters that were physically fleshed out and unique they weren't given much time for characterization except for few individual characters, as a result many of the characters seem more like caricatures then characters with personality and heart, which is something that the film truly needs. It almost seems like because the characters were so individually stylized physically they didn't see a need to narratively build their characters.
Then again, those moments and bursts of energy in the film were just so well done that makes the film something that cannot be simply dismissed, a true shame. The greatest showman thrives at depicting the human spirit and tenacity yet fails to deliver a story with a coherent story and focus. But in there somewhere is a great film that sadly was not what the end result was. If the greatest showman could better build to character revelations and the main romance story with meatier character motives that truly connects those individually great moments I believe we do have something great here.