It's the most Netflix movie not made by Netflix I've seen. I had fun with it because Chris Evans and The Rock are charismatic and I love Christmas so I kind of grade Christmas movies on a curve, but it's certainly not a "good" movie. Excited to hear his thoughts on Memoirs though lol
Speaking of grading Christmas movies on a curb, "Hot Frosty" is a freaking masterpiece in the "turn your brain off holiday cheese" department. My favorite Netflix Christmas slop since the magnum opus that is "The Knight Before Christmas".
I am very curious what non-Wicked/ non-Broadway people think about Wicked. As a massive Wicked fan (especially of Act 1), I had an absolute blast at it last night. It was maybe a touch too long
especially Bowen Yang and Bronwyn James who felt more like "we have these two, we need to use them more than just extras"
but overall I really enjoyed it and I think the music was amazing.
The trailers definitely did it dirty on how it look. It definitely isn't great still but it is a LOT better than how it looked in the trailers. But for all these physical massive sets, I don't get why it looks so muddy lol
I am very curious what non-Wicked/ non-Broadway people think about Wicked. As a massive Wicked fan (especially of Act 1), I had an absolute blast at it last night. It was maybe a touch too long
especially Bowen Yang and Bronwyn James who felt more like "we have these two, we need to use them more than just extras"
but overall I really enjoyed it and I think the music was amazing.
The trailers definitely did it dirty on how it look. It definitely isn't great still but it is a LOT better than how it looked in the trailers. But for all these physical massive sets, I don't get why it looks so muddy lol
I’m excited to catch it (and Gladiator II) tomorrow. I grew up listening to the cast album of Wicked because my parents went to see it on Broadway and brought it back for us so I quite enjoy and have nostalgia for the music but have never seen the show itself. I’m hoping I enjoy it but I still have doubts over how oversaturated the marketing campaign has been already
I caught both Gladiator II and Wicked today and while I thoroughly enjoyed both of them, Wicked absolutely blew me away with how much I ended up enjoying it.
I didn't find myself having an issue with the color grading, I thought it was still pretty colorful and I guess that's just not something I really care about to begin with (maybe I'm too adjusted to the MCU color palette idk). As for the length, I genuinely didn't feel it in the slightest I was having too much fun. I checked my phone (I was in the way back don't worry) because I was getting a call and noticed I was like two hours in and it did not feel like it at all.
I think my biggest criticism is that some of the songs were a bit too drawn out, especially Defying Gravity which had a few too many cuts to action between lines that it made enjoying the song difficult, same with Dancing Through Life which is unfortunate because those are two of my top three songs in the whole musical so those two being extra drawn out was kind of disappointing.
Overall though, wow, I did not expect to love it nearly as much as I did, even as a casual fan of the music. Both the leads were phenomenal as were the many practical sets. I can't believe I'm saying this but... I want the second part like, now. I went in not even needing a second part since I find act 2 of Wicked to be a pretty big downgrade, but I just want to spend more time in this world with these characters and that's a hallmark of a great movie.
Universal should've made this a land instead of a THIRD Harry Potter land
Yea, add me on to the Wicked hype train. It wasn't just great, it was fantastic and instantly melted away all the bad vibes the ad campaign has been conjuring. Arianna Grande absolutely deserves to WIN the damn Oscar. She's honestly one of the single most impressive performances I've seen in any movie in a long time. The comedy, singing, and dramatic acting is all just absolutely flawless with her. Some of her subtle facial reactions in "No One Mourns the Wicked" are genuinely haunting. I also think the supporting cast playing Boq, Fiyero, and Nessa were all fantastic and a big reason why I'm genuinely stoked for part two. I grew up listening to the soundtrack in high school but I've never actually seen the show, so I have some pretty decent confidence act two will translate better in a movie form with the proper context of the dialogue scenes.
Can we please talk about how seriously amazing the choreography was? I'm genuinely blown away by it. Dancing Through Life in particular ranks with some of the all time great musical numbers in film history. The stuff with the rotating library was visually awe inspiring, and the emotional moments in the ballroom were freaking chilling. The production design, costumes, color, everything was so freaking on point EXCEPT the washed out lighting which is a damn shame that I really hope gets corrected in part two. I also thought Erivo's performance was very much "good but not great". She's a FANTASTIC singer obviously, but I just didn't fully buy into the actual performance as much as I wanted to. I think Arianna being as much of a revelation as she is truly did the Elphaba character a disservice no matter who was performing it. She's THAT good and it's ridiculous that she's being campaigned in Supporting Actress and not lead (not going to make that same mistake with the Golden Tikis tbh)
My only other criticism is as PerGron said, some of the songs get a little too drawn out. Defying Gravity in particular was way too broken up with MCU style CGI chase scene BS. The emotional highs of the song still hit but it's not nearly as much of a mic drop moment as it could have been if they would have just let the song play out naturally. Again I was way more compelled by Arianna's reaction to Elphaba than I was to Elphaba herself, even though I think the character's plight was really well set up throughout the film.
Potential spoiler for part two
I freaking DIED laughing in the opening flashback when they try to hide the identity of the mother's lover but it's SO OBVIOUSLY Goldblum singing. Comedy gold right there
I freaking DIED laughing in the opening flashback when they try to hide the identity of the mother's lover but it's SO OBVIOUSLY Goldblum singing. Comedy gold right there
Yea, add me on to the Wicked hype train. It wasn't just great, it was fantastic and instantly melted away all the bad vibes the ad campaign has been conjuring. Arianna Grande absolutely deserves to WIN the damn Oscar. She's honestly one of the single most impressive performances I've seen in any movie in a long time. The comedy, singing, and dramatic acting is all just absolutely flawless with her. Some of her subtle facial reactions in "No One Mourns the Wicked" are genuinely haunting. I also think the supporting cast playing Boq, Fiyero, and Nessa were all fantastic and a big reason why I'm genuinely stoked for part two. I grew up listening to the soundtrack in high school but I've never actually seen the show, so I have some pretty decent confidence act two will translate better in a movie form with the proper context of the dialogue scenes.
Can we please talk about how seriously amazing the choreography was? I'm genuinely blown away by it. Dancing Through Life in particular ranks with some of the all time great musical numbers in film history. The stuff with the rotating library was visually awe inspiring, and the emotional moments in the ballroom were freaking chilling. The production design, costumes, color, everything was so freaking on point EXCEPT the washed out lighting which is a damn shame that I really hope gets corrected in part two. I also thought Erivo's performance was very much "good but not great". She's a FANTASTIC singer obviously, but I just didn't fully buy into the actual performance as much as I wanted to. I think Arianna being as much of a revelation as she is truly did the Elphaba character a disservice no matter who was performing it. She's THAT good and it's ridiculous that she's being campaigned in Supporting Actress and not lead (not going to make that same mistake with the Golden Tikis tbh)
My only other criticism is as PerGron said, some of the songs get a little too drawn out. Defying Gravity in particular was way too broken up with MCU style CGI chase scene BS. The emotional highs of the song still hit but it's not nearly as much of a mic drop moment as it could have been if they would have just let the song play out naturally. Again I was way more compelled by Arianna's reaction to Elphaba than I was to Elphaba herself, even though I think the character's plight was really well set up throughout the film.
Potential spoiler for part two
I freaking DIED laughing in the opening flashback when they try to hide the identity of the mother's lover but it's SO OBVIOUSLY Goldblum singing. Comedy gold right there
Yeah I've gotta agree that Ariana outshines Cynthia a bit, though I definitely thought Elphaba was done really effectively and I would slot her into the lower end of the "great" category for her performance in The Wizard and I and her bit in Something Bad almost solely. Some great face acting there.
Upon thinking about it over the last 24 hours, I really ended up enjoying Jonathan Bailey's Fiyero a lot too. He didn't make a big impression upon viewing but I think it's because it was almost overwhelming in its whimsy but from listening to the soundtrack today and recalling it, he really was a great character. Boq and Nessarose were definitely solid too but I am awaiting their more prominent roles in the second part since they didn't get much.
I've also seen complaints about Goldblum??? I found him to be a wonderful (pun intended) Wizard of Oz. He was his usual charming self but I also felt that danger there that I think you needed to really make it work. He could've hammed it up and gone full Grandmaster and I'm glad he didn't. Also, y'all caught the Walt Disney nods with him I'm sure.
Overall, yeah, this one ends up in my top 10 for this year pretty handedly
