MovieChat Forums > La La Land (2016) Discussion > Decent movie, but beyond overhyped

Decent movie, but beyond overhyped

posted 8 years ago by Quetee (10)
6 replies | jump to latest

I like musicals but people calling this movie the best musical ever... ummm, I have a question: how many muscials have you seen exactly?

I think what really set this movie apart and why it stuck with so many people is the ending. I think so many people have experienced that ending at one point in time in their life that it hit them in the gut. And that's why it stayed with so many people not because of its musical attributes. Please name one? Okay a nice soundtrack, I will give it that. Other than that Ryan/Emma can neither sing nor dance. The story wasn't that original, it just has a really good ending that made all of us reflect on our past.

I could be wrong, but years from now, I don't think it will age well. All you will need is a movie with stars that can actually sing and dance and its crown will be tarnished.

All one has to do is to go watch Crazy Ex Girlfriend on CW or Netflix. Rachel Bloom is the real deal. Emma wishes she had that much talent.

Just saying...

[–] IMDBRefugee1SD (139) 8 years ago

The best movie musical ever, probably not, but a very good one.

The ending is indeed one of the film's strengths. When I saw the previews for the film I assumed it would take a rom-com
approach to the romance, but it took a serious approach with it's bittersweet ending.

Ryan and Emma are not the best singer-dancers, but as is typical in recent movie musicals, acting ability is more important
than singing-dancing talent. And the singing and dancing was not technically difficult.

The score and song "City Of Stars" won Academy Awards. The Academy got it right this time.

I haven't seen "Crazy Ex Girlfriend", I may get back to you on that.

[–] Quetee (10) 8 years ago

Acting is important but if you are going to be in a musical you should know how to do both. Ryan impressed me way more than Emma.

It's a decent movie but at the end of the day, I think it will be forgotten and people will wonder why it scored 14 nods. It couldn't even score a MTV movie of the year nod and even Boyhood managed to score one.

I think we will get another original musical and that one will show people how it really should be done.

I did like the ending and the soundtrack, I just think the story itself needed some work as well as the singing/dancing.

If you have Netflix, add Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to your list. Every single person on that show except for maybe one or two people are professional singers and dancers. You'll see why I'm not that impressed with La La Land.

[–] FredBurroughs (21447) 8 years ago

I was not taken with the singing itself, and the leads indeed lacked a suitable singing/dance background. Almost every scene had me listing off individual criticisms. The film, however, turned out greater than the sum of those parts.

In a way it came off as an "anti-musical" in the sense that traditional genre entries have more of a patterned structure where each scene/sequence serves to set up the next number. This film took a different approach by introducing the musical performances as a way of underscoring the story's emotional beats. Each song served to progress the story instead of the story pausing to serve up the song.

Who knows if La La Land will open the door for more "naturalistic" musicals in the same vein, but it definitely found an audience with genre fans and non-fans.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend does an admirable job of bringing the musical format to TV. As far as recent movie musicals go, Popstar and Sing Street got ignored by the major awards, though.

[–] liscarkat (18367) 7 years ago

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[–] liscarkat (18367) 4 years ago

Yes: how many musicals have you seen exactly? This overhyped mediocrity is a musical for people who have no familiarity with the great musicals of the 1930s through 1950s. The music, singing, and dancing are amateurish compared to what audiences of those decades were accustomed to hearing and seeing.

[–] DracTarashV2 (4493) 4 years ago

Nope. Not one bit.

Naysayers (like this one spamming up the join right now) gonna naysay.