Movie Number 43 of 2025
The Film: Wicked: For Good
The Cinema: Hoyts Victoria Gardens (Lux)
Runtime: Two hours seventeen minutes.
Stars: 2 (okay 2.5. Just)
People who occasionally read my reviews know that I'm normally a positive reviewer, I look for the good in what I go see. I find things to appreciate, talk up some things while being constructively critical about other things.
Yeah. I'm not going to do that here.
Wicked: For Good is ostensibly a bad film. It's a bit of a dog. With fleas. But people are going to march along to it regardless and will probably say it's great.
I won't do that.
There. I said it. It's bad.
This is not to say that I didn't enjoy some things, and I will talk about those. But this one's a shocker, which is disappointing as the first film was very enjoyable. But that was a year ago. They had a year to get this right. It didn't happen.
Also, some of this comes from the fact that this is based off a musical, and the kind of musical which I tend to avoid or then see once and never go again. Case in point - Les Miserables. Seen in once. The best bit is when Javert jumps off the bridge. I don't like that the musical themes are repeated ad nauseum through the show. It's annoying. It's why I don't like mainstream
It's for this reason I never saw Wicked on stage. There are other things I'd rather spend my money on. Seeing this as a film suits me better - it doesn't have the large financial outlay.
So, here's my major criticism: You take a three hour, with interval stage show and turn it into two, two-hour plus movies. The first film has the interesting stuff about how the two protagonists meet and do the enemies-to-friends trope. The second is about how they 'killed off' the Wicked Witch of the West. And frankly, the story is a bit boring. But it could have been a lot better.
I'm not going to diss this film for all the things that should have made this stellar.
The production values are incredible. The CGI, the colours, the sets, the costumes - they're brilliant.
The music and dance productions are fantastic, even if they are repetitive. Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba is exquisite. She's great. So is Ariana Granda as the annoying but growing Glinda.
But and here is my big but, the script feels like it's been outsourced to A.I. and the work experience kid. The transitions between scenes are clunky. Some scenes feel cut short, others are laboured. It's like they've spent squillions on the production and forgotten about the script, making the movie feel like it's about half an hour too long.
I'm not going to let the writers Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holman off the hook for this. Nor whoever approved the continuity. It felt jumpy and patchy. However good a film looks, it doesn't make up for a badly constructed story - and this is why I've not rated it.
Still, those who love Wicked the stage musical will love this. This will encourage the theatre kids out there to apply for the VCA and NIDA. Those who like musicals will love it, especially those who love the original musical.
For me, nah. Not impressed with the storytelling. It doesn't matter how good it looks, how wonderful the musical numbers are - a badly told story is a badly told story and as a writer, this is unforgivable.
No comments:
Post a Comment