mmmbreakfast’s review published on Letterboxd:
After a down year for movie musicals, this comes along and rectifies most of the problems. It’s a fairly inspired adaptation (unlike Mean Girls or the live-action Little Mermaid), the songs are memorable and catchy (where just a year ago, Wish, Wonka and the Color Purple combined for, tops, two songs I can remember), and it’s not some bitter, ashamed-of-itself anti-musical (sup Todd. sup Joaquin)
It’s Jon M. Chu’s best movie, thanks in no small part to the excellent work of Erivo and Grande. His strengths are pretty directly tied to how strong the source material is that he’s adapting. Defying Gravity is so unimpeachable, only a deliberate hit job like Folie A Deux could have messed it up. The movie’s got to balance all the songs and dance numbers, an arc for Elphaba, an arc for Glinda, their love triangle, the animal rights stuff, and the scenes with the sibling, and how easily it can be to learn to devalue others, even family - all to some satisfaction without actually fully resolving anything yet. And I’d say they pulled it off! So far!
I wish I could say otherwise, but the visual style is the weakest element here. The visual downgrade discourse was all over Oz the Great and Powerful, and not much has changed a decade later. Chu can direct a whole lot of people in the frame, but it’s nearly all for naught when the movie’s left its brights on for most of the first half. Asking the Wizard for some shades
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