I watched this movie yesterday. I deliberately stayed a way from listening to any soundtrack or interview clips in advance. It is not very often you get the chance to experience a movie like this for the first time, so I wanted to be surprised.
Overall I loved it, the audience was very respectful and quiet too.
I wish they had used a different rendering/look for the colors. Like the technicolor look in the West Side Story remake. More filmic and authentic. Now it looked and felt like a cloudy set somewhere in the UK filmed with a video camera. It almost felt like behind the scenes footage at certain points. The chosen rendering did not match the sets, costumes and story.
I think the 2 leading ladies carry this movie. I was one of those people who wasn't happy when they announced the casting, as I don't like Ariana's pop songs and I can't stand Cynthia Erivo (which is also part why I avoided interviews).
Ariana Grande's Glinda is subtle, elegant, funny and she sings the score well. After watching it I can't think of anyone else who could have done it better. I think it's cool that a whole generation who only listened to recent pop and rap with only 3 chords will be introduced to more chords, articulation, elegance and head voice now. She was great. One thing I did hear beforehand was that the producers and Stephen Schwarz wanted to turn "Popular" into a rap and r&b track and that Ariana has called them and said that she definitely did not want that and suggested that they should honor the material. That makes me respect her even more.
I was surprised about Cynthia Erivo's performance. Her acting was actually believable and good, and her singing too. I tried to be as neutral and open as possible and she was great. In her previous roles there was always something about her "characterization" that felt pathetic/victim role-ish. I often wondered if this was just how she plays everything/who she is or a directorial choice. I'm still not sure but it fitted this role. I believed her to have low self-esteem, also because they showed the story behind it, I believed her views towards others and situations (like the scenes in public with Nessa, the lack of understanding others, etc, and Madam Morrible who says "you could do great things if you would learn to control your emotions", the defensiveness which she is also confronted with by other characters such as Fiyero (before "I'm not that girl" which she sang beautifully by the way), and I believed her standing up for herself at the end, and I found that to be a powerful and emotional scene.
She also did the little acting nuances well. I loved the scene in "Dancing through life" where Nessa tells her that she has just been invited by Boq, and where she sings "I do". Beautifully played.
The one factor that I did not like was Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero. I don't understand his casting and his acting choices. His singing is fine but I don't believe his acting and he comes across as an "unattractive mean gay" to me. I am gay myself, please don't clutch your pearls, but the way the audience was chuckling at his scenes in displeasure and aversion felt more like the reaction to the Duke in the Moulin Rouge movie than to what I imagined Fiyero to be. Bordering on sly, frustrated drag queen in his acting, gestures and eyebrows. The shots of his introduction and in the forest were also anything but flattering. Very unattractive to me. The opposite of how I see a Fiyero. The ensemble reactions to him (swooning and moaning) felt misplaced and there was no romantic connection between his Fiyero and Glinda or Elphaba at all. I can't imagine "As long as you're mine" to be remotely sincere. Maybe from the point of Elphaba wanting to be loved or accepted, which in my opinion was what "I'm not that girl" was about, not about him.
The song of the Wizard with the moon was surprisingly sweet and lovely.
The sound and all the vocal tracks were impressive. It was also fun to hear exactly where all the cuts were from live-singing on the set to the studio tracks, which I loved because that is where the songs truly take off. A great combination.
I like the character story lines, scenes and songs more than the ensemble scenes, which felt a bit too puppet show and insincere to me.
But overall, it was entertaining and beautiful. I laughed a few times, got emotional a few times and I cringed a few times.
Wicked is not my favorite show, story or score so I went in with an open mind. I have always kind of liked it, never loved it. Because of the beautiful orchestrations and versions of these songs in the movie I like it a bit more and have been listening to some of them on repeat today.
I am looking forward to part 2, in a way it felt like half a movie. Boq and Nessa just disappeared, Fiyero and Elphaba just met, Defying Gravity is a moment of complete chaos, it's a pity we have to wait so many months now.
Edit: I also think this movie comes at the right time. There seems to be a trend in story telling and characters. I have always thought that Frozen was a rip-off from Wicked, girl with powers but doesn't know how to handle them, recognizable power ballad, quirky Glinda-esque second lead. The bonding between the 2 girls. Being an outsider, misunderstood, fighting for your place, this seems what the world knows, recognizes and loves nowadays. And the world was longing for some decent music.
Updated On: 12/6/24 at 04:55 PM
