The First Reactions To The Wicked Movie Have Critics United

https://www.slashfilm.com/1701424/wicked-movie-reactions/

We should also be getting social media reactions to "Red One" and "Moana 2" any day now, but today is "Wicked" day on Twitter.

This is a ludicrously small sample size, but the early word out of an early screening is that "Wicked" simply "rocks," in the words of Variety's Clayton Davis. "Galinda is the role Ariana Grande was born to play. Perfectly suited and genuinely a hilarious, scene-stealing performance," Davis wrote while also praising Erivo, stating her "heavenly vocals allow her to make Elphaba her own."

Davis's Variety colleague Jazz Tangcay cops to being one of the film's skeptics, but she was won over. In her estimation, the first "Wicked" film "is absolutely everything cinema should be. The crafts and acting are absolute SHIZ." Tangcay needed a second tweet to gush, "Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande have gifted us a musical masterpiece that is much more than we could have ever expected." A masterpiece!

On to Variety's Katcy Stephan (someone please keep an eye over the next few months on this film's Variety ad buy), who also called "Wicked" a masterpiece before raving that "Ariana Grande makes Glinda sparkle: she milks every moment with gusto, humor and hair flips. Jon M. Chu added so much new life to the story that I can see why it needed to be 2 parts! Well worth the 20-year wait."

Curious for a non-Variety perspective? Here's freelance journalist and BAFTA voter Simon Thompson, who said "Wicked" is "an Oz-some spectacle that pops and enchants on the big screen. An absolutely stunning vision. Leads Erivo and Grande knock it out of the park." Another unmitigated rave? Not quite. Thompson concludes, "While this perhaps won't convert many anti-musical folks, genre fans and die-hard Ozians (Wickhards?) will feast on this."

Universal has reportedly spent over $300 million on these two "Wicked" films, so it's obviously hoping for a far better return on its investment than it got with Tom Hooper's "Cats." Take the above reactions with a Lot-sized lump of salt, but the buzz is certainly more positive for "Wicked" than it was prior to this screening.