The critics are out of touch with the people.

Rating: 10/10 (8 January 2018)

This is absolutely one of the most fantastic and fantastical movies I have ever seen!! Definitely one of the best stand alone (not part of a series or cinematic universe) movies I have seen in recent years.
Frankly the critics can go suck eggs. There is a 35% discrepancy between the audience score and the critics' score at the time of my writing this and that is ridiculous and tells me the critics are out of touch with the people and therefore irrelevant. The movie itself is like a "screw you" to the critics:
"Does it bother you that everything you are selling is fake?"
"Do these smiles seem fake?"
The movie is great. It isn't trying to be anything or say anything, it isn't condescending or manipulative, it doesn't linger on cliché situations for long and keeps moving through the story. It exists to make people smile and that is something wonderful. It really is like a trip to the circus. You don't go to the circus for realism, you go for a fun, colorful and fantastical escape from real life, that is what this movie is.
That all being said, if you don't like musicals you probably won't like this movie but I would still suggest giving it a chance and go in with childlike wonder, not adult bitterness and cynicism. Let it remind you of what a trip to the circus was like when you were 6, suspend your disbelief and learn to smile.