Wicked (2024)
★★★
This review may contain spoilers.
the stand outs here is the production design, the visual effects and the acting from Ariana and Cynthia
the production design is pretty great, so many good practical effects that look great in camera, the book place, the whole oz sequence, though a lot of visual effects they are enhanced by the practical effects, wish there was just a tad more usage of them to sell the CGI all the more.
the choreography in this movie is wonderful, and super cool to look at at times.
the visual effects look really great and are really neat and fascinating to look at.
the acting from Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande is pretty great, they are definitely carrying the movie and keeping interest, Cynthia is doing more wide ranging emotions where as Ariana has a character trait and has to showcase so much emotion through this character trait, both pretty impressive performances, though I feel Cynthia did a fantastic job, as she has to showcase more of a range of emotion's physically
the story is where this thing falters for me, they took a plot that could have been expanded by spending more time with Glenda and Elphaba resulting in that ending where when the two separate and giving it a more powerful ending, they took this subplot of Michelle Yeoh's character manipulating Ariana's character and kind of started it near the end, instead of leading into it in a better way, so much potential is found in this thing, with expanded aspects in some of these area's this thing would have really worked for me. it's long but not boring, but still kind has some aspects that could be improved to make it more well rounded.
notes below
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- the reflections in the water near the beginning are very nice.
- the colors in OZ are pretty great.
- I like the font for the title card, very nice.
- the set dec looks really good.
- Cynthia's vocals in The Wizard and I are great, when she does the little speaking part and the hops back into the song it is wonderful, the sound design particularly in the desert area is pretty great, the silence and slight echo sell it.
- I like that shot through the broken glass.
- there was a handheld shot in the class room that rushes from one end to the other that was cool.
- the goat professor has this dead eye stare that is very funny.
- liked the shadows, that was pretty cool.
- I like the set of the book place, that's a cool shot to start on.
- I liked the choreography of the song in the book place, it was really cool and executed very well.
- Cynthia is giving a true powerhouse performance; Ariana is also giving a good performance as well.
- though there are scenes where there is color change, like this pink hallway or the mirror scene, the colors are extremely muted and less vibrant than they should be, like we should have more vibrancy in the water, it's like a muted blue.
- and I do think the plot is moving but it's a bit slow, a lot of music, which is fine and the music is pushing the story forward to some degree it just feels like it's dragging a bit.
- cool cameo of the original Broadway stars.
- the set in oz looks very cool, though a lot of CGI it still looks like a lot of practical effects were used.
- wish they had kept the floating / projected head that gave the wizard an omniscient all powerful kind of aspect to him, the old mechanical aspect takes away from the wonder and amazement that he projects but the shy and unsure nature of him, so we get this technical mechanical nature instead of the wonder and astonishment that he projects, turning his character from a circus ring leader who landed here to a man who worked on tech, which maybe that is his origin I don't know
- wonderful use of shadows for a sense of wonder that the movie creates.
- the horror that overtakes the animal as it transforms is actually kind of horrifying.
- instead the glass shattering for her, for the first time she is shattering the glass, she is showing the world what she is capable of.
- that defying gravity sequence is pretty great.
