I love musicals, and went to The Greatest Showman on the strong recommendation of my girlfriend, who'd seen it and loved every bit of it. She was shocked that my reaction was so negative.

The sins of this movie are numerous, but to begin with, as a musical, you have to consider the music above all else. If you like generic, bland, pop mixes, you'll probably like the music in this. If on the other hand, you like thematically appropriate, well-timed, plot-based, interesting compositions like those in Chicago or Moulin Rouge, give this a pass. Choreography was similarly uninspiring, from opening scene to closing credits. Literally not a single memorable number.

Character development: there is none. Prepare for the most cursory archetypes that aren't explored or developed in any real way. In no way did I ever care about a single character in this film.

Overall direction: I'm sorry, but this was godawful. People do not SMILE like this all the time. They don't LAUGH at pedestrian dialogue. Whenever the pacing seemed to grind to a halt, hey, why not liven it up with a song? Truly painful.

Even from a technical perspective, this one flopped: costumes were lackluster, makeup was shockingly uneven (you could see the glue lines of the bearded woman), CGI (thankfully sparse) was flat and not composited very well (eg, most shots with elephants). Early on, it seemed as though the filmmaker was shooting for a Moulin Rouge-style fantasy world. That didn't succeed, and then was dropped abruptly for more conventional presentation.

Do I sound angry? Well, I am; I was prepared to love this movie. I wanted to love this movie. My girlfriend and I discussed for hours afterwards, as it seriously affected her - several scenes caused her to tear up, she loved the music and dance, she thought Hugh Jackman was fabulous. I was flabbergasted, as I was merely trying to get to the end so I could escape and do something more entertaining. We're not often on such different pages, but wow, was this one polarizing.