Review: Wicked
Official Synopsis: Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), a misunderstood young woman because of her green skin, and Galinda, (Ariana Grande) a popular girl, become friends at Shiz University in the Land of Oz. After an encounter with the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), their friendship reaches a crossroads.
To be perfectly honest, I never really cared for the Wicked stage show. Defying Gravity is a great song, but I was pretty lukewarm on the rest of it. There was actually a point in time where I thought this movie might bomb based on all the drama that seemed to be coming from shooting. But alas, Wicked fever has taken over, and the talent involved got me to give this another try.
Wicked is actually part 1, but the Marketing doesn't want you to know that until after you bought your ticket. The nearly three hour movie only covers the play's first act. On paper that doesn't sound great, but I actually really enjoyed seeing Elphaba's story a little more fleshed out. Especially the brief glimpse we got of her childhood. I also like the additional things we got with Elphaba and Fiyero, and how they included more talking animals. Part 1 is very faithful to the show. I didn't recall anything big being cut, but it has been quite some time since I've watched the musical.
Cynthia Erivo was a tremendous Elphaba. She captures all of her complexities and she has a tremendous voice. I think I've listened to the soundtrack about 10 times already. Ariana Grande has always had excellent comedic timing, so she fits Galinda well. I just wish she would enunciate when she sings. She's an incredibly talented vocalist but I rarely can understand everything she's singing. It's really obvious when she duets with Erivo who very clearly enunciates all her words.
The world of Shiz University is beautiful, and the costumes were to die for, but the film feels very drab once they get to the Emerald City. It's kind of backwards considering it's supposed to be the rich capital.
Overall, I had a great time with this. I cannot stress enough how ridiculous it is that Grande is going to be campaigned in Supporting for this film when she's very clearly a co-lead. I expect this film to show up quite a bit on Oscar morning.
Grade: B
I'm still on the fence about seeing it as I don't really like Jon M. Chu as a filmmaker though I did like Crazy Rich Asians. My mother is interested in seeing it but I'm still unsure.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth it, IMO. It would be a nice thing for you to take your mom to!
DeleteI try not to be one of those people who hold classics sacrosanct and think they should never be fiddled with (the ultimate version of The Maltese Falcon was the third go round for that material after all) and I know this is more of a prequel than a remake but I'm still not to keen to see it.
ReplyDeleteThe stage show left me unimpressed and borderline bored, plus knowing that this is only the first half of the story puts me off. I made that horrendous error of seeing the first Lord of the Rings, hating it but being trapped into seeing the others so I knew how it turned out. It was NOT a pleasant experience! However my niece saw the movie and adored it, but I still think it will be a case of waiting until I run across it on streaming for free some year.
You mentioned Ariana Grande not enunciating the lyrics and how it bothers you. I'm right there with you!! It's a rampant issue with music nowadays. If you listen to older music, and I don't just mean things from the 40's & 50's, though you can always understand what artists like Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald and so on were saying thereby pulling you into the emotions of the story they were telling, but up until the 90's or so clear diction was standard and expected. Now who knows what the hell they're singing about so it all becomes so much background sound.
On a totally different tack. Have I missed them or have you given up on your Blind Spot list for this year? I always enjoy reading your take on the various things you catch up with.
LOL Lord of the Rings. I love those stories but the amount of fake out endings there were in Return of the King were hilarious and seeing people standing up and having to sit back down in theaters was so funny - So I absolutely get not liking that and wanting to relive it. No I haven't given up on Blind Spots I'm just badly behind. I've had a lot of work travel lately so I fell behind on theater releases, and the Blind Spots kept getting pushed back. Then a lot of the ones I wanted to watch got removed from streaming, so I'm having to replace them. But I have another longish flight coming up and I am going to try to find some to download and watch. I did find a decent amount of back ups on Tubi of all places, so I'll be utilizing that.
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