EDITOR’S NOTE: Notice THE contrast between the Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes scores. The overrating on RT has become too ridiculous now — they have added so many bloggers and YouTubers that they cannot be taken seriously as an aggregate anymore.
EARLIER: Having seen it last night, I can safely say that John M. Chu’s “Wicked” will contend for one of the last remaining Best Picture slots. That does not mean I loved the film, and it surely won’t crack my top 10 of 2024, but enough critics are eating it up, not to mention it’ll have a 100M+ opening weekend, that it can surely now be seen as a “contender.”
Yes, the embargo has lifted on “Wicked” and I’ll update these scores as more reviews come in. So far, it’s at 73 on Metacritic (based on 43 reviews) and 96% on RT. It’s not the “masterpiece” that social media promised, but good enough to have some legs this awards season.
I do roll my eyes at the insistence that everything mysterious, and magical, about “The Wizard of Oz” needs some kind of coiled explanation. But hey, you have Ariana Grande being, rather perfectly, ditzy, and Cynthia Erivo being very serious. The audience at my screening ate it all up.
Set in the Land of Oz before and continuing after Dorothy Gale's arrival from Kansas, “Wicked” revolves around Elphaba Thropp (Erivo), a green-skinned woman, and explores the path that leads her to become the Wicked Witch of the West, all while forming an unlikely friendship and later rivalry with Glinda Upland (Grande), who would go on to become Glinda the Good.
Chu goes BIG in “Wicked,” which clocks in at a ridiculous 2 hours 41 minutes. It’s large, glossy, and very mainstream filmmaking. Did I mention it’s also a musical? Chu’s film is an adaptation of Holzman and Schwartz's ultra popular Broadway play of the same name, which used characters from “The Wizard of Oz.”
Don’t get me wrong, if you get past the rather lethargic first hour, which is filled with flat exposition, “Wicked” eventually finds its footing, especially in the scenes set in Emerald City — that’s where our two leads finally end up meeting the Magical Oz (comically played by Jeff Goldblum).
However, what really irks me most about this film, and the reason why it feels rather un-cinematic, is Alice Brooks’ cinematography. The night scenes are underlit, and the daytime sequences are overlit, and yet still look grayish. It’s odd lensing. The color correction is blasphemous. Did I mention the CGI? Not that good. The animals look artificially rendered, and the flying sequences are kind of wonky.
Regardless, IndieWire’s Anne Thompson is also reporting that “Wicked” played liked gangbusters at a recent Academy screening, earning a standing ovation. At the very least, Ariana Grande will probably get nominated for Supporting Actress. Erivo has a decent shot as well.
More to come …