Universal's WICKED Films - News & Discussion Thread — Page 56

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "There's a lot of hair splitting going on, but I think the bottom line is it looks bad.Whether it's the cinematography & lighting, or the physical production design, or the CG augmentation, or a combination of all, this is not a visually-successful first trailer. The design looks weightless, the contrast is low, there's a shiny artificiality,and to me it looks quite obvious where the physical set ends and the greenscreen begins.

It's a growing problem in Hollywood, not exclusive to WICKED. A production can still build massive sets while also using a ton of greenscreen (FANTASTIC BEASTS and LITTLE MERMAID, for example). And smaller-scale period pieces can still look terrible (GILDED AGE and COLOR PURPLE, for example). Marvel has a big VFX problem, and there are a lot of awful-looking streaming blockbusters.

It becomes especially frustrating when we have had a number of really beautiful-looking blockbusters of late (the recent Hunger Games reboot, Avatar, Dune, Oppenheimer, Top Gun Maverick, Barbie, Indiana Jones, the international sensation Godzilla Minus One, etc)."

Yeah, this seems to be a trend among a lot of blockbusters: they look awash in CGI regardless of much is real, like theyve been run through a filter. Not to bring up Cats but they also built these really elaborate, scale sets and then digitized them beyond recognition. I wonder if this is a digital vs. film thing, as it's sometimes noticeable in movement as well, like some of the dance sequences in In the Heights. More recently, in Argylle, Henry Cavill walks and moves like he's an AI creation.

Digital cinematography is absolutely a problem for a lot of films, and it looks to be a problem here. It's so much cheaper and less time-consuming, but when done poorly it can cause movies to look flat and lifeless, which doesn't benefit most stories. But there's not a ton of movies shot on film nowadays.

TotallyEffed said: "You bring up a good point, Quibbler. The Lord of the Rings was shot on film, then digital special effects were rendered, and then they printed thaton film. There's still grain and depth and the beautiful richness of 35mm. This effect is totally lost in movies today."

Not to go down a LOTR rabbithole, but the other magic trick of those movies is that New Zealand hadn't been used in a ton of American studio films up to that point. So the otherworldliness of the natural surroundings was automatic production value (enhanced by clever settings created for the films). But even though Wicked shot some stuff on location, the majesty isn't there in the trailer.

Every time I watch the trailer, I can’t believe there are people who don’t like it. It’s beautiful! However, people are certainly entitled to their opinions.

The overall reception to the trailer has been extremely positive - which bodes well for the film’s release!

Oh, I have no doubt the costumes will be stunning. I was just shouting out Susan Hilferty’s iconic designs and daydreaming a bit about seeing them pumped up on a Hollywood budget.

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "There's a lot of hair splitting going on, but I think the bottom line is it looks bad. [...] this is not a visually-successful first trailer.

Agreed. Let's not gloss over the fact that this was shown during the Super Bowl, either. Most folks are aware that the Super Bowl is prime real estate for advertising. IMO, "Wicked" squandered their opportunity by putting out a sequence of "blink and you'll miss it" moments that amounted to nothing in terms of effective advertising for the two films.

Where were any hints of either of the two new songs that Schwartz says he completed for the film? Or of Keala Settle, for that matter? Surely, she is not going to be wasted in a speaking role; not after her contribution to the success of "The Greatest Showman" soundtrack.

At least one of the new songs would have been written specifically to be an Oscar contender, right? (Probably the 2026 Oscars, as Schwartz has indicated that the new songs, if either are used, would be in the second half of the story.) Would it be unreasonable to hope that one of those new songs was written with Settle in mind? Why not take the Super Bowl opportunity to "tease" that?

I have the impression that the "Wicked" folks were unprepared to use their Super Bowl time effectively. What we got was what we saw, and in spite of the chorus of optimistic voices, it wasn't very good.

I assure you the crowd who watches the Super Bowl had zero interest in being gifted moments of new songs or glimpes of Keala Settle. The trailer did what it was supposed to - it let people in mid-America know that a big budget movie of something related to The Wizard of Oz is coming out in November.

And for anyone complaining that the film world of Oz looks fake and shiny - have you seen the MGM movie? The flowers in munchkinland are literally plastic.

John Adams said: "BrodyFosse123 said: "It will behard to top the Shiz uniforms…

"

Thank you for posting this still! This was one of those "blink and you'll miss it" moments in the teaser.

In the still, Galinda is flanked by two characters from Maguire’s book that do not appear in the stage musical. To Galinda’s left is the character Phannee (played by Bowen Yang) and to her right is ShenShen (played by Bronwyn James). In the book, Phannee and ShenShen are both females. They’re kind of like Glinda’s rich “mean girl” friends, especially in regards to how they view Elphaba.

As seen in the still, it seems the students of Shiz have options regarding whether/not to conform to gender-specific clothing. Above the waist, all are wearing a blazer, but below the waist, some are in trousers, some in knee-length shorts, some in skirts, and some in both skirt and shorts. Their choices for what to wear below the waist do not seem to be restricted to what might be considered traditional gender conformity. In the still, Phannee is wearing a skirt, but it’s not visible whether/not the character is also wearing shorts.

Also in the still, Phannee is obviously showing signs of disapproval. Yang is scowling. His disapproval is accentuated by wearing his glasses lower down on his nose. He's literally looking down his nose at Elphaba at first sighting.

So, here’s what I’m wondering: Why was the character from Maguire’s book changed to imply a stereotype of a gay male?"

ShenShen and Pfannee are in the stage show. There’s male Shiz students wearing skirts in the stage show also.

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "A first one-minute teaser isn't the time to tease a new song out of context. It barely worked to just have the isolated riff at the end of Defying Gravity.

I happened to watch Baz's Great Gatsby recently, which is such a brilliant blend ofVFX (stylized and tangible) to augment real-lifefilming locations. That + a recent rewatch of Dune made this brief look at Wicked look even worse, imho.

But maybe they pull a SONIC and change things after the initial trailer.


I thought Baz's Great Gatsby was garish. I hate the VFX quality of it and it's only getting more dated looking.

Well I thought that was awful but will still go to see the finished product. That green on black and white on white looked like too much pan cake for me. Overall I wanted to be dazzled Wonka[original] style but maybe that's to come. This clip was too dark.

SweetLips22 said: "Well I thought that was awful but will still go to see the finished product. That green on black and white on white looked like too much pan cake for me. Overall I wanted to be dazzled Wonka[original] style but maybe that's to come. This clip was too dark."

I'll take "People Who Invalidate Their Opinions By Staying Stupid SH*T" for $200, please.