An empty candy-wrapper

Rating: 2/10 (27 December 2017)

This movie, to me, was like an empty candy wrapper. Before watching the movie and after seeing the trailer, it looked like it was going to be something magnificent! It had:
Academy award winning lyricists - Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
Academy award nominated actor - Hugh Jackman
Academy Award nominated actress - Michelle Williams
An inspiring true story about acceptance, love, relationships, family and sticking with what you value most. The cinematography looked absolutely astounding in the trailer, the acting looked amazing, the directing looked amazing, just EVERYTHING looked amazing in the trailer. It gave me goosebumps I must admit. So, it's a small wonder that I was excited to go see this movie as soon as I could.
However, that was just the wrapping of this promisingly sweet and delicious candy that I was looking forward to indulging. So when you open the wrapper and seeing that there's nothing inside it, you would feel quite disappointed wouldn't you?
Well that feeling was similar to how I felt when walking out of the cinema.
The cast and the characters are probably this movie's strongest point:
Zac Efron really came to his own in this film. Not being a big fan, I must say I ended up finding myself quite excited when seeing him on screen, His character was intelligent, classy, knew what was best for him and had his moral compass set straight (though a little bit crooked at the start of the film).
Hugh and Michelle were great of course. Rachael Ferguson was absolutely stunning, Zendaya was extremely impressive, and the circus ensemble were great in each of their own way.
The cinematography was extremely impressive, the first shot of the film already reeling me in in what I thought was going to be the movie of the year.
But that's where it ended.
I understand where the lyricists and the composers of this film were aiming for a more modern feel with their music as a way to express Barnum's ahead-of-time ideas. But the 1800's setting mixed with 2000's music was definitely not the way to go, especially when each song started to sound the same: the structure being too similar to the point where you could predict when the chorus was coming up, when the beat was going to drop, when the texture was going to thicken. Hell, you could almost sing the lyrics before it was even sung! The messages with each song were very similar. Although they were inspiring messages, it didn't shy away from the fact that they ended up being quite redundant. Michelle Williams' solo was impressive, though, and was definitely a standout from the rest of the music.
The story was predictable - a man coming from a troubled life, yearning to make something of himself. He eventually gets there, getting married and having a couple of kids along the way, but of course let's the fame get to his head and therefore slowly strains the relationships he has built around him. He of course eventually picks himself back up after a few reminiscing pieces of music as well as inspiring "Nothing will bring me down" scores, and lives happily ever after.
It's been done before time and time again, and setting it in the 1800's and making it a musical will not shy away from the fact that the formula is getting really old.
So this is my humble opinion on "The Greatest Showman" and what I had to say on the matter. It's not the worst movie of 2017 but it definitely isn't the best movie of the year either. It will be forgotten once it gets out of cinemas I believe.