Wicked (2024) Review: An Epic Musical Adaptation Can Definitely Defy Gravity
Copyright © Universal Pictures, Marc Platt Productions
Title: Wicked (also known as Wicked: Part 1)
Director: Jon M. Chu
Based on: Wicked by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Release Date: November 22, 2024
On the other side of the road, this recent movie is multi-billion dollar Spellbound for a moviegoer with money. How did it become a predicted hit? The movie used so many marketing opportunities from collaborations to toys sold all around. Today's movie is Wicked, the latest musical hit based on an iconic Broadway musical! Against a $150 million budget, the movie currently has a box office gross of $46.74 million. However, it is projected for a success with $117 million in its opening weekend. In addition to its future success, both critics and audiences have undoubtedly praised it. On Rotten Tomatoes, the Tomatometer is 90%, along with the Popcornmeter being a whooping 97%. Crafting a magical journey using expensive production and well-performed songs, Wicked is a musical adaptation by Universal that can defy gravity to the highest sky.
Summary
This story tells the origins of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch of the North. Green-skinned woman, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), gets ostracized until she forms an unlikely friendship with the popular and pampered woman, Galinda (Ariana Grande). When they encounter the Wizard of Oz, their friendship crumbles apart as they separate into different paths of their lives.
Reasons
Just like what everyone else said, the highest notes from Wicked are the production, songs, and faithfulness to the source material. Universal spent a lot of money to make this movie's budget expensive. Most of today's high-budget movies will turn out terrible but this is one of the rare exceptions. Everything in this movie looks perfect and detailed to make the fantastical high-budget world. Moving on, the songs made the soundtrack a whole blast. Even with the replacement cast, they all fit in perfectly to perform this movie's versions of the original songs with their vocal talent and choreography. Every song, especially "Defying Gravity" and "Popular", is enough to get the audience singing to how the songwriters did this seriously. Speaking of what was said, the movie is completely faithful to the source material. This is enough to get newcomers to get into Wicked itself from the first act's adaptation alone. From the story down to the soundtrack, everyone in the team did well as paying attention to how to adapt the original musical play.
Wicked also nailed it with the other high notes of visuals, acting, and story. Because the production was magnificent, the same cannot be said for the visuals. Every visual, from the animals to the magic, had movement and detail enough to be real. It even went well with blending into the musical numbers as well. Going to the next point, the cast did an awesome job playing their characters like the original play's cast had done it. As expected, Cynthia Erivo fits as the ostracized Elphaba, as well as Ariana Grande easily fitting as the popular Galinda. Same is said for everyone else like Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz, Marissa Bode as Nessa, and so on. Finally, the story was a well-done attempt at adapting the musical into an epic two-part saga. Although the movie may be moderately long, the movie is plodded with extremely enjoyable moments and no rips from the start to the end. Even with the cliffhanger, it does perfectly on telling watchers where the second part will have to offer next year.
Even though Wicked is yet another incredible movie, there are some flaws that may not appeal to everyone. The most obvious flaw would be the long runtime of 2 hours and 40 minutes total. Even though every moment is filling this length of time, some are going to complain about how long it will be to sit through the story. Additionally, some people may not get used to it at the start. Throughout the first 45 minutes, the movie is loaded with a lot of singing, but it will take some time to get used to once it settles down more.
Conclusion
Like everyone else has said, Wicked is a musical adaptation that is crafted with expensive production, fun songs, and rich story that all families will enjoy. This year, Universal did it again with a perfect live-action flick this time. This movie has a very likely chance to outrun Disney since Moana 2 is coming out a week after Wicked did. Its marketing is all over the place, so a lot more people will see it while it is out right now. Definitely see it no matter if you are a fan of the original musical or not. Ariana Grande may be overplayed in your opinion but you might admit that she had her purpose in the movie adaptation.
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