I’m disappointed that it took me so long to write this.

In my first review that I wrote for, I titled it “sensational” and gushed about how “wonderful and chilling” I thought it was. For instance, I wrote how it’s "a celebration of the weird, colorful, and imaginative success of an unlikely group of people led by a happy genius who strove to be more than he seemed.”

Now I’m looking back, rereading what I wrote several months ago, and wondering what kind of hypnosis I was under that make me write this. I wrote the review immediately after watching "The Greatest Showman" for the first time in the theater, which was a little premature. After some digging about the history of the real P.T. Barnum and his circus, I now realize how completely wrong I was my initial review for Hugh Jackman’s latest musical.

Even though most of this movie was not executed very well, I have to say that it is visually stunning. The first scene is a good example. Jackman standing in full costume underneath the bleachers, lights from the circus illuminating his silhouette, the first song, the audience stomping and singing along, and this shot coming in and out with the beat until “The Greatest Showman” appears on the screen in simple, black and white lettering in the classic font of the circus. Then he starts singing and you feel like you would believe anything at all that comes out of this man’s mouth.

The costumes, choreography, and camera shots are beautiful, but there’s absolutely no plot, no reason to connect with any of the main characters, and nothing about this movie is rooted in fact.

The absence of a plot is not always a bad thing, but The Greatest Showman takes it to a whole other level. Barnum barely struggles at all. He marries his childhood sweetheart, obtains a huge loan from the bank to start a business, creates a museum, then figures out an idea for the circus soon after.

There’s no direct hardship that lasts for more than two minutes. Sure, he has a little trouble getting people to his museum at first, but this is far from the main conflict. There is little to no struggle. It’s success after success after success for this guy. His building even burns down and his wife thinks he cheated on her at one point, but, nope, everything turns out just fine about 5 minutes later. Are you kidding me? I think I hate Barnum by the end.

Speaking of hate, none of the characters are relatable. There’s no depth to anything they do. For instance, every motive is either about dreams, love or, in Zac Efron’s case, money. There really isn’t any real inner conflict throughout the entire movie.

To top it off, hardly any parts of The Greatest Showman or story are true. Yeah, P.T. Barnum was innovative and somewhat successful when it comes to show-business, but he did not recruit a very short twenty-something man to be Tom Thumb. It was a five-year-old child who often smoked or drank during his act.

If you do a little research on the real P.T. Barnum, you’ll find out he was a trash human. He used slavery to his benefit for the circus, mistreated his employees and animals, and was a very sleezy and two-faced person in general. The Greatest Showman is misinformed, twisted and utterly inaccurate.

I only keep rewatching it because of how pretty it all is.