Wicked

I didn't read the books beforehand, so for me the casting felt absolutely perfect! I love to see small-budget movies just because they introduce fresh faces, and this one didn't disappoint at all!

That being said, I understand this was the director's first feature directorial debut, so many things need polishing if she plans to direct the future installments too. The transition and backstory of the main characters could've been built better, the attraction felt rushed and not spontaneous. The action-scenes need to feel more realistic. However, kudos to the director for so many critical things like action and CGI in her first feature project.

Acting-wise, I believe Liam is better than Anna. Nonetheless, for acting in a movie with lots of action sequences, they simply needed more rehearsal and clarity of their respective characters.

Lastly, this is a passionflix production, so director, could you please give us more of that amazing chemistry? I felt I couldn't get enough of these two!!

Overall, not the best passionflix production, but definitely one of the good ones :)

I would like to preface my review by saying I have not read the Jennifer L. Armentrout Wicked Trilogy that this film is based upon. Therefore I did not come in to watching it with any expectations. I will say from personal experience that I have come to expect certain things from Passionflix films, like that they stay very true to the novels and deliver very steamy content. Passionflix has inspired me to read several series...and a few stand alone novels. I did notice that this film was not directed by Tosca Musk, but rather by a Taryn O'Neill...which may account for some different directorial choices.

Before I dive in to my review, I want to list my Passionflix favorites and the one/two Passionflix misses: first I absolutely loved season one of Driven, Casey Deidrick is smokin' hot and makes this series...but the overall story deals with some darker topics like abuse, loss and the foster system (This stayed very true to the books...which I found out after, because I was inspired to read the series.), the sex scenes were well done and even though I didn't care for the main actress...I highly recommend this series (at least season one, we will see with the new actor who plays Colton for season two). The second on my highly recommend list is the three films that make up Gabriel's Inferno, which is book one in the series. (Again I was inspired to read this series after seeing Tosca Musk's part one)...I would go so far as to say that the on screen portrayal is even better than the books and I say this without being a fan of either of the actors playing the leading roles. These films smolder. There is probably a tie for me between Dirty Sexy Saint and The Will-loved both, have since bought the books...sex was handle so well with the stories and I thought the productions were really tight. I also enjoyed the casting in both. Then my next tier down is Afterburner/Aftershock...which is the first author that I had read before seeing. I loved most of the cast particularly Caitlin Leahy who played Gianna. Also in this mid-tier category I put The matchmaker's Playbook...great cast not quite as good as the others, but still totally worth seeing(maybe even a couple of times). Now for the two I didn't care for...The Protector and Hollywood Dirt. Don't get me wrong there are some funny scenes...but they lack the chemistry and story power of the other films.

Ok now for Wicked...I said all of that to let you know that I was very excited to see this and was eagerly waiting the next Passionflix release. How did I feel at the end? ...kind of left in the middle.

What I liked: I think the lead roles both Liam Hall who plays Ren and Anna Maiche who plays Ivy are attractive and well suited for their roles. The actress who stole the show for me was Elyse Mirto who plays Merle, she was beautiful and just the right amount of crazy. I loved the New Orleans backdrop for the story.

Now for the things I didn't care for...Conceptually I liked the idea of the brownie Tink...but was a little irritated with the reality, but maybe that was intentional? It did seem rushed or forced maybe even a little juvenile. We did not get very much build up or explanation of this world or it's past. But my biggest criticism was really the sex, which seemed almost like an afterthought...like, oh yeah we have to put this in here, and done!, on to the next scene. I don't know if that was direction or what...but it didn't seem to have the level of respect and care that I have come to expect from a passionflix film. I would venture to say that the level of detail and care shown to sex scenes is what really sets Passionflix apart and without that...this could end up being written off as a B-grade sci-fi film of which there are so many already in existence.

This is the first real Fantasy offering from Passionflix and as such I am willing to suspend judgement for the next film...but if this was a stand alone, I might be tempted to give it a pass.

It was exactly like the book , ok the CGI could be better but I liked the scene with Tink and Ren it was funny , the actors could be different more like the characters in the book and more experienced cause they were some scenes that the actors didn't feel it and the scenes lost the point , but it was a good low budget movie.

I have mixed feelings about this. I've ready the books, and I think this is another movie by Passionflix that your average person would be missing things if they hadn't.

I was really.. put off by how the movie flew right into action with no real information on the characters. The acting by Anna and Liam was okay, but again, because they just flew into "like" with each other and we didn't get to see any general interaction between them until after they had hooked up, it felt forced. But as relaxed/natural as later on in the movie.

I also felt this way about the introduction to Tink. Either the acting is terrible there, (as it was with a lot of the secondary characters) or too forced in the beginning. To rehearsed or like I was listening to him read off a promter.

There are things I appreciate about Passionflix in that they never sway from the heart of the book. But also, sometimes I feel like word for word script doesn't always translate well to film. They need to add to help the book transition well.

I'm not good with words, I just know that so much Iike the beginning of a book is about catching the readers attention and wanting them to read more. A movie is about the same, but also not being confusing or ridiculous to the point where the watcher wants to turn it off. This was close for me on a couple of occasions.

Having not read the books I can't really comment on the story or if it brought the characters to life. Movies don't always fulfil our expectations when reading a book. Although as I didn't have any prior context to this movie, It was very enjoyable. Yes there were some parts that felt a bit scripted here and there but all in all I think the main actors did their best to portray their characters. Some scenes of course looked quite fake and could have been improved but that is mostly down to funding. Had there been more money invested all the fantasy effects and fighting scenes could have been alot better. Found the fighting scenes a bit too easy and not much of a challenge. Having watched lots of fantasy and sci fi and action movies I know it could have been done alot better had there been more funding. In terms of storyline pretty predictable but I don't mind, the ending did throw me off a little as I didn't expect that to happen. Thoroughly enjoyed the movie and I cannot wait for the next one. Hope there's a next one with lots more action and more answers I just don't like cliffhangers...