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By Charlotte O’SullivanFeatures Correspondent
UniversalThe first trailer for the film adaptation of the hit musical appeared during the Super Bowl, and some movie fans were not impressed. “CGI sludge” is just one of the criticisms, but are the haters right?
Among all the movie and TV trailers released during this weekend’s Super Bowl game, none has been more discussed than the first teaser for the upcoming two-part film adaptation of the Wizard of Oz-inspired musical Wicked . In the opinion of certain sectors of the Internet, the result, far from defying gravity – to name the most beloved song of the program – is a failure.
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– The 1979 cult hit that depicts an ultra-violent New York
Poor lighting and coloring; generic special effects. According to haters, this snippet from Jon M Chu’s version of the subversive Broadway hit (which is essentially an origin story for the evil witch from the classic 1939 film) sounds like a Harry Potter spin-off. EITHER a parody of Saturday Night Live. Either that or one of the much-hated offerings of the new phase of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies: the Wicked trailer is so visually flat that even its charismatic stars, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, look like undercooked pancakes. One Reddit user summed up his dismay: “This seems like a pretty dull narrative with all edge stripped away in favor of tacky CGI action shots.” One online critic lamented what he described as the “CGI sludge.”
Any trailer with so many nods to the original Oz was always going to get a kick. The flying monkeys, here, do not fill us with dread. And the spiers of Emerald City look like they were cut and pasted from a catalog of darkly fantastic houses.
The trailer doesn’t just fail in comparison to epics from the distant past. Place Wicked next to the blockbusters of recent years and if the trailer is anything to go by, it still falls short. Dune (split into two parts, like Wicked, and made for about the same amount of money) was surreal and disturbing. The same goes for Oppenheimer. Meanwhile, Barbie’s Greta Gerwig gave us a show that combined expensive, colorful sets and effects with the most inventive and cleverly clever lo-fi details.
On the other hand, let’s give Universal some credit. The beauty of Holzman and Schwartz’s musical is that, catchy songs and gritty plots aside, it completely reimagines the events of the 1939 classic, creating a whole new world of possibilities for the green-skinned witch, Elphaba (Erivo), and her on-again, off-again friend, the stereotypical It girl, Glinda. Those coming to the new material will probably assume that Michelle Yeoh’s character, the college principal, Madame Morrible, is some kind of inspirational, Dumbledore-esque mentor who wants young girls to reach their potential. Yeoh’s line in the trailer seems a little robotic: “Once you learn to control your emotions, the sky is the limit.” But if you know what Morrible is doing, that works.
Likewise, those who don’t know Jonathan Bailey, who plays Elphaba’s love interest Fiyero, might consider him unworthy of the mighty Erivo. But Bailey (who was incredibly seductive as the Viscount in Bridgerton, as well as excellent as a hacker in doctor who) is an inspired choice. He and Erivo are the kind of crafty actors who know exactly how to upend expectations, make us sob, and/or generate sexual heat. If anyone can make Elphaba and Fiyero sing, it’s these two.
Speaking of which, the trailer seems almost embarrassed that the movie we’ll see in November is a musical. Like in the trailers of Wonka and the recent Mean Girls Musical Movie, trills are kept to a minimum. But the little riff at the end (which gives us a snippet of Defying Gravity, like we’ve never heard it before) allows Erivo to let loose. His voice is tremendously good and this movie still has the potential to be wicked.
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