This one really has people going at each other and declaring war on those not sitting firmly on either side of the fence eh? Ah well that's human behaviour but I'm gonna wade in with my thoughts if not for morale support for only a small handful of others seem to share the same.

The hype over this is something of a mystery to me and in the nicest way, I can only assume the majority that rave and can say nothing but good about this one are coming at it without having much prior knowledge or experience with musicals (or PT Barnum) but I'm from a musical / theatre background and later became well read and researched on all things related to the origins of the circus so can be accused of just being precious.

Thing is, I'm not being precious at all. It's a really bright, colourful, dazzling confused mess.

Starting with the good points about it - the aforementioned really bright, colourful and dazzling stuff which is what's so confusing and conflicting.

The costumes, editing, choreography and music I can live with. Actually the music is pretty good I do like a fair few songs quite a lot and don't think they were badly placed or misplaced at all with the era as a lot seem to take issue with. It just feels like someone sat down and wrote all the songs, did all the choreography, sorted the costumes and props, got a shipload of coke for the CGI crew and then a week before its release they went "Oh no.. did anyone do a storyline or plot or anything like that?"

It really does feel like they had the best ingredients, the most lush recipe for a rich velvet cake and in the excitement someone forgot to put it in the oven.

There is literally nothing holding the whole thing together and I did start to lose focus and fade out a bit so had to skip back to see what I'd missed between Zac Effron and Trapeze girl. One second he was seeing her for the first time and immediately falling in love and then next thing they have this whole "We have come such a long way" thing. I have no idea how got from A - Z but they did.

Bearded lady is happily singing from behind a sheet hung on a washing line, Barnum rudely barges in all "Ah my good lady with the fine beard and boobies I must have you join my show!" and then next thing she's giving herself black eyes bouncing and dancing around with some strangely new found confidence that runneth over more than her top. It'd take some real bravery courage to bust out a routine with a beard like that but again - she found it and it comes from her hidden behind washing to leading a full ensemble.

Backing dancers we're given a speed dating introduction during the scenes were Barnum is dishing out wanted posters for "Unique Persons" written by HR staff way ahead of their time and that's it. No other character development or real storyline or plot or anything in-between the songs is going on. They had a week to come up with something I'm sure but a quick read of Wiki must have thrown a spanner in the works so they filtered out the worst, tweaked the little things like means of extinguishing the fire ("Can we CGI belugas or do we just grab buckets from the storage? Yeah let's go with buckets. We're already on thin ice with the elephants and lions and stuff...)

A huge disappointment and WTF moment was the scene where Barnum first hears and falls in love with the voice of Jenny Lind and I say disappointment because at the first chorus I went "That's not her voice..." and it distracted me enough that I paused the film to do a quick Google search and sure enough it wasn't. My issue isn't with her being dubbed and I appreciate the actress felt Loren's voice was more powerful and fitting than her own (agreed) but it showed and painfully so.

On the plus side although a tad hypocritical and contradictory I know, at least Hugh Jackman was and is much nicer to look at than PT Barnum himself. If you aren't familiar - Barnum in real life looked like a thumb. Google him if you're not familiar. An actual thumb.

I didn't expect much in the way of historical accuracy by any stretch but the origins of the circus and the individuals that formed part of Barnum's side show and freaks is fascinating to start with. I thought the whole thing about accepting people for who they are inside and celebrating the differences in all of us was going to be really told through the real life characters i.e. Bearded lady, Jenny Lind, General Tom Thumb etc.

Bizarrely it makes the people they're trying to celebrate crass caricatures of themselves which nobody seems to have noticed.

General Tom Thumb for example is depicted in this film as the wacky, crazy funny little guy struggling to stay balanced on the back of an elephant calf. In reality he became wildly rich, famous and even bailed out Barnum when he hit the skids and needed money. He married, had a family, had his own purpose built home made and like, love or loathe Barnum, the man did him this opportunity which would not have been afforded anywhere else at all.

The hate from people that take issue with "glorifying" Barnum to me is right out of the idiots pocket book guide on how to be offended and woke with all the other cool kids. Barnum never claimed to be much beyond a businessman and those he exploited he actually gave an opportunity to avoid being horribly exploited and abused as was pretty much standard at the time.

What I will say is this would have been superb if they'd taken it straight to the stage. It feels like it was born for Broadway and as a live production, would have more time to develop and been a strong show.

The same music, choreography and talented cast - even including some lighting trickery or puppets for the animals - I imagine it as being an absolutely superb but even bigger, better version of Circus 1903

PS. Seriously - Barnum looked like a thumb.