Flashback to 2010 Disney Channel but with a big budget

Rating: 1/10 (28 December 2017)

I saw that Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams were starring in this movie and thought "Les Miserables" and "My Week with Marilyn" were great, this must be great. What I should have seen was Zac Efron and thought "Bad Neighbors" and "Baywatch" and instantly walked in the opposite direction of the cinema. To say that I was disappointed with the film would be an understatement. I can name at least seven adjacent stories that take place during the film - each one on their own would be an interesting movie to watch - but to see such a string of storylines played out (each of them are literally wrapped up in minutes) mostly feels like I'm bingewatching any Disney Channel live action series. This is definitely where the film goes wrong. As the title of this review implies, it felt like a big-budget "High School Musical" on steroids. To be fair, I didn't expect this to be a big piece of art but I expected a beautiful film with proper entertainment value. It wasn't even that. If you don't believe me, watch the movie yourself - but you were warned! That's 2 h 19 mins you won't get back... The main character rode down the streets of New York on an elephant for crying out loud! Only to get off the elephant and leave it there?!?! There are no words for this film. Don't watch it!