Reactions visible to anyoneReactions visible to owner’s Close FriendsReactions only visible to youDraft entryVisible to anyone (with link)Visible to the member’s friends (with link)Only visible to you
A very faithful, yet sloppily executed adaptation of the Broadway musical.
I’ve seen Wicked on Broadway twice, so my thoughts about this film pertain more to how the movie is adapting its source material, rather than how I feel about the plot or songs.
Which is easily why I walked out of this feeling so frustrated; the cast is phenomenal, the set designs are gorgeous, the costumes are stunning - they had all the pieces to turn this into a perfect film…except for a competent director.
Director Jon M. Chu’s insistence on staying true to the source material seems like a noble concept on paper, but it’s a terrible choice in practice. Yes, die-hard Wicked fans likely don’t care about how a movie looks or how poorly a scene translates from stage to screen; they just want to see their musical obsession through the nostalgic lens that they originally fell in love with.
But plays rarely translate perfectly to screen without some heavy tweaking. Jokes don’t always land the same way. A character’s motivations and emotional through-line don’t make as much sense in a completely different format. And I understand wanting to stay true to what people have grown to love, but then what’s the point of adapting the story to film? You might as well just watch a recording of the stage production.
And although the ugly lighting and cinematography have been commented on by many people already, it shouldn’t go understated. This film looks bad. This notion that realism should hold more weight over artistic expression is baffling, especially in a fantasy movie based on a technicolor masterpiece.
At the end of the day, I knew this probably wasn’t going to be for me, so I shouldn’t feel too disappointed. The fans are happy, my theater crowd was roaring with cheers and applause, and I can already tell this film is going to make a boatload of money. I’m genuinely happy that this play has a film adaptation with a good cast, and that it’s finally going to reach a wider audience.
I just wish it was better, and that people had higher standards.
Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Please consider upgrading to a Pro account—for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages (example), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads!
