We've hit a counting down point, haven't we? The number of new, Fox-branded films made by Fox is getting smaller and smaller. Like it or not, we're in a weird time for the movie industry, something like the Fox buyout has never happened before. We might not know for a few more years what the final movie funded and released by them is going to be, movies take a long time to make after all. But one of the movies on that list? A stylized musical pet project based on P.T, Barnum and the creation of the Circus... ok then. Allow me to introduce to you, Ripply's Believe it or Not, the movie... I mean The Greatest Showman. (how many people are going to get that reference?).
Before I go into the story, I do have to go into one thing this movie got a lot of hate for online. No, this is not an accurate depiction of the real events that this movie was inspired by, and the key words there are inspired by. "Based on a true story" and "Inspired by a true story" while meaning similar things, one has a bit more leeway in execution then the other (even if people love to use the two interchangeably). I did go through the trailers of the film before writing this review, and the wording they do use is "Inspired by a true story". What does that mean? Well, it means that it is very, very, very loosely connected to the true story. To compare other forms of "inspired by" films. Disney's The Little Mermaid is not the original Hans Christian Andersen story, it was inspired by it. Same can be said for the Angry Birds film and its connection to the games, any Dr Seuss movie, you get the picture. Because of that though, I'm not going to review this in comparison to the real-life events. If I did, the review would be over here and now because of how drastically different the events are. If you're looking for an accurate depiction, you are going to hate this movie as there are characters who never existed, stylizing Barnum's personality to make him more likeable, making the acts that were used in the circus real (and not heavily faked like they were in the real circus), a fake affair, and more. If you were looking for a review of the film in comparison to the real events (or what research myself and other reviewers have done on the real events), there's your answer. If you're looking for a review on the film itself, feel free to keep reading.
Welcome to the late 19th Century, a time where an industry is booming, the distance between states and countries is beginning to shrink thanks to improved transportation, and when the idea of a circus begins to form. After losing another job, and with the struggle of raising a family taking his toll, Mr P.T. Barnum creates a museum dedicated to the weird and exotic (look, it reminded me of a museum I saw in a brochure a few years ago while I was in Queensland, that's where the Believe it or not joke came from). Anyway, when the museum fails, an idea from Barnum's children leads him to turn the museum into a theatre of sorts, where all the actors for the show are living equivalents of the stuffed exhibits, such as the Bearded Lady, Dog Man, etc. From here, the movie has two main plot lines. One revolves around Barnum becoming more and more obsessed with being accepted into the rich elite sectors of society, the other puts a racial overtone on the rest of the cast of the circus, as large chunks of the New York (I believe) population does not want a "group of freaks" to get the spotlight. And when you consider who two of the major characters are in this subplot, it wouldn't be too hard to connect it to a modern-day political climate. Anyway, after a publicized fake affair and the protests burning the building the circus was in brings the two stories together for the "I was wrong" moment, the film closes where it began, in the tent the circus now occupies, and Barnum leaving the circus to be a better father. For a musical, the plot is very by the numbers (pun intended). A guy does a thing, gets greedy, greed goes too far, the guy sees that he went too far, everyone comes together at the end. Does Greatest Showman do it well? Yes. But it doesn't try to break the formula that works.
A part of any musical though is the music itself, and the music for Greatest Showman is overall really good. There's a lot of energy in most of the songs which leads to a lot of the songs being extremely catchy and memorable. One problem I did notice is that a lot of the songs feel padded in terms of the lyrics. One example is the final song of the film, From Now On, where they repeat these three lines "And we will come back home. And we will come back home. Home again" seven times in one verse, and that's not even the only time those lines are said in the song. I have no objections to repeated lyrics, especially in the credits. But seven times? To make up one verse? Is there nothing else they could have done to break it up?
What does help let the repeating parts of the songs though is the choreography and the cinematography. While the CGI is hit and miss at times (the animals clearly aren't there as an example) this is a beautifully shot film, especially when it comes to the songs. There is a strong effort to sync the video to the songs, akin to something of the old Silly Symphonies. It's hard for me to describe, so instead, I'll show with a few examples from the film
The opening of the film (the first half of the song "The Greatest Show"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv6H9f8JcG8
The Other Side (this was the best one I could find that had the sound effects, though the mixing for it sounds a little off): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GimrxP2U0ZE
This is Me (I swear the subtitles aren't that bad in the film, "joys of a karaoke version"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjxugyZCfuw
From Now On: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka6HLhiqyIk&t
It should go without saying at this point then if you saw the clips, the cast also helps carry this film. To those expecting me to go after Zac Effron considering my history with High School Musical. No, I won't. That's something saved for if I ever review those blasted things. IF I said IF!
When taken as a stylized version of the story, Greatest Showman is a strong musical film. Not without its flaws, but still really strong. But like I said earlier, if you're expecting something that's closer to the real events of Barnum's life, you'll find this film to be horrible in execution because of how much it gets wrong. Worth a watch if you're willing to let it slide. Next week's going to be a busy three post week, more to be explained later. Come Sunday though is going to a plastic Transmetal gorilla, and up next here? A little bit of ink, and some Nasty Majesty. I return to Inkopolis for the review of the Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion.
Kinda annoyed that I reviewed a film called The Greatest Showman, but couldn't make a Jim Sterling joke though. Missed opportunity on my part.
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