10 Comments

The problem I had when I saw WICKED on stage is that I felt, even at 29, that I was way too old for it. I know it's considered a Great Musical but to me, it's like watching a young adult novel...but not one of those Hunger Games ones that manages to be pretty deep. Just a solid enough piece of entertainment pitched at 14 year olds.

So the idea of a 320 minute version of this across two years? Nah I'm good. Unless it gets a BP nomination and then I'm dutybound to see it

Expand full comment

Saw the stage version for the first time a few months ago. Didn’t care for it much but liked the first act a whole lot more than the second. I was going to use that to wiggle out of seeing this, but looks like it’ll only work on the sequel. Time to fake an illness.

Expand full comment

Co-sign everything you say here about All We Imagine As Light.

Expand full comment

Me only saw stage version of this recently, so me watched Wednesday not realizing that Wednesday/Enid relationship was just lifted whole cloth from Wicked, which frankly, gives relationship more depth in 2 hours than Wednesday does in 10. And me liked Wednesday!

What me trying to say is, me not expected to like musical as much as me did, and based on this and other reviews, me suspect me will feel same way about movie.

Expand full comment

wow. that's a much better review of WIcked than I was expecting.

Expand full comment

I will say that as much as I liked the movie I'm also relieved not to have to see the trailer again. I believe it's been playing for the last 18 months.

Expand full comment

All We Imagine As Light is still currently my favorite of the year, so I'll hold off for the reader poll and just say that Kani Kusruti has such fantastic screen presence. She's pretty good in Girls Will Be Girls as well

Expand full comment

The first half of Wicked is the best half of a musical I've ever seen, ending in the triumphant "Defying Gravity". The second half I found kind of rote, not nearly as clever or entertaining as the first half. I fear the movies may follow the same pattern.

Expand full comment

This site is a generally positive place - which I specifically appreciate - so I won't use up any more space than necessary to say that, boy, I sure didn't like WICKED. I do like musicals but I haven't read the book or seen the stage version, if that's relevant information.

I've found myself on the opposite side of critical / popular favorites more than a few times and, while I'm sure the reverse must also be true, I'm hard pressed to remember any movies that "I alone" have loved. When I'm on the side of the film, there's typically support for it beyond my own. (Excluding movies that I enjoy but can't honestly justify, e.g., ELECTRIC DREAMS.)

Is this a commonly shared experience or a flaw in my programming?

Expand full comment

Saw this today. I'm both unfamiliar with the book and musical. Found myself impressed by Cynthia Erivo, pleasantly surprised by Ariana Grande, and underwhelmed by how much inspiration was taken from Lord of the rings in the set design of the University. A decent way to spend two plus hours but it still felt like Furiosa in that I just kept waiting for the other shoe to drop on stuff that was bound to happen. Wouldn't be surprised if I skip part two.

Expand full comment