Universal's WICKED Films - News & Discussion Thread — Page 119

Cynthia will not be winning Best Actress if she is nominated. It’s Jesse Buckley’s year.

TotallyEffed said: "Cynthia will not be winning Best Actress if she is nominated. It’s Jesse Buckley’s year."

Agreed, and deservedly so. Hamnet is excellent.

I'm curious if Fiyero still gets arrested by Dorothy's fallen house, yet gets taken miles away for no reason to become the scarecrow? When they could have just done it right there on the spot?

Can the stage show reincorporate the entire Wonderful number and dance? The movie made me miss that moment when The Wizard and Elphaba dance around the Wizard’s head.

I mean, sure.

DramaTeach said: "Felt about the movie the same way I feel about act 2 - good but full or ballads, so it drags. There was a lot of crying on that screen. There were potentials for bright spots with the new songs, but Schwartz gave us more ballads (guess No Place Like Home is midtempo, but could’ve been way more joyous - like don’t leave because we LOVE it here so much that we’re all gonna have a big, fun dance moment!). Here are the performances in order or who I thought was best:

1) Ariana

2) Ethan

3) Jonathan

4) Michelle

5) Cynthia/Jeff

Questions:

1) Clearly Morrible has powers, so why does she succumb so easily to Glinda?

2) Is “March of the Witch Hunters” not a direct ripoff or “The Mob Song” from Beauty and the Beast? I must’ve realized this before, but it really hit me yesterday."

HOW do you rank Cynthia below Michelle?? Did you not find No Good Deed the highlight of the film?

Act 2 is weak but this was a pretty shocking collapse. Alternately pure kitsch, a couple moments that got howls in Brooklyn, and unbelievably tedious. Will always have Part 1.

WiCkEDrOcKS said: "

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My exact thoughts during that moment were…

Scarywarhol said: "Act 2 is weak but this was a pretty shocking collapse. Alternately pure kitsch, a couple moments that got howls in Brooklyn,and unbelievably tedious. Will always have Part 1."

I do think they were very conscious that this was a purely financial decision from the beginning. They wanted profit at any cost, and they got it.

Wicked 2 Box Office: For Good Sets Record for Broadway Adaptation

https://variety.com/2025/film/box-office/wicked-for-good-box-office-opening-weekend-record-1236590025/

Wicked: For Good sometimes feels like three different movies competing for your attention. There's the dark, postmodern take on The Wizard of Oz, the political analogy, and then the heartfelt story of a lost friendship that may become whole again. I've never seen Wicked on stage so I can't speak to how the story was expanded and adapted, but there are definitely some moments that underline how this is the second act of a show stretched out to feature length (the scattered opening reminding us of where everyone stands, reprises of songs that only appeared in the first movie, etc.)

That said, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Mainly because the chemistry and performances from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo continue to be incredibly strong. Grande has the juicier role this time around, and it's fascinating to watch her because she's so good at hiding what her character is really thinking. She's not exactly a cypher, more like someone who is trying to figure themselves out in real time. Jonathan Bailey is also really good, bringing out more of Fiyero's heart. Marissa Bode and Ethan Slater do good work with their limited screentime, but I would have liked to see their characters fleshed out a bit more - their respective endings especially felt quite perfunctory. You're making a two-and-a-half hour movie, you can't find time to give these wonderful performers more to do? Jeff Goldblum has his moments, but I also get the sense that Jon M. Chu was so happy to be able to cast him that he let Goldblum do basically whatever he wanted, which ends up being a little grating at times. Chu does give some great images - "Wonderful" especially looks glorious. He also inserts some action sequences that are exciting in the moment but, as I mentioned before, feel like they come from an entirely different movie.

This one, unlike the first, feels like more of a director's showcase than an actor's, but the performances still give it a lot of heart. It's probably most telling that as flashy as he can be elsewhere in the movie, when Chu shoots "For Good" all he does it take his camera and point it at Erivo and Grande. That's all he needs. The two of them are so good, and together they're dynamite.

So yeah, I liked it. It's not as good as the first (in hindsight, it probably makes the first look even better in comparison) but still an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. Now when the national tour comes though the Twin Cities a few months from now I'll finally be able to see the show as it was originally intended and have a better idea of what the adaptational process was.