THE GREATEST SHOWMAN REVIEWED
“The Greatest Showman” has to be one of the most schizo films I saw in 2017. While I didn’t love it, I appreciate what it tried to do. Borrowing heavily from the 80s stage musical Barnum, this entry tries to use the power of the cinema to thrust you into Barnum’s world. While it does immense work at world-building, the character keeps feeling secondary. Before the film was released, there were rumors that the movie got whittled down to an audience friendly release. That talk was never backed up, but the feel of missing moments are there.
Too many scenes feel like we’re promised more. Zendaya and Zac Efron never quite get the romance that we were promised. Charity feels more like a bewildered passenger hanging onto Barnum’s coattails. If that weren’t enough, the actual circus stars get introduced like B-List Avengers fighting for screen time. Realistically, this was all done to highlight the music. Having this audio feast in the privacy of my home theater was treat. Bouncing between the 4K and Blu releases of the film allowed me to deep dive into subtle nuance that eluded me in the theater.
But, is it a good movie? It’s a musical for the sake of being a musical. While that will entertain the aesthetic craving crowd, I can see it rubbing some the wrong way. That being said, watch it with a theater loving crowd. They’ll eat it up.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Featurettes
- Sing-Along mode
- Galleries
- Trailers
- Commentary
A/V STATS
- 2.40:1 1080p transfer
- DTS-HD 7.1
