KangarooDoug

My favorite part of Wicked: For Good was that it filled my small local pub theater. Other than that, the costumes, singing and set were all great just like the first movie. However, Wicked suffers from having been split in half. I have seen the live musical twice and it works quite well and is about half as long as these two movies put together. The first movie has all the best songs and is altogether more fun than the sequel. Wicked: For Good is impressive, you can feel the budget, but it also feels stretched and bloated. When you watch the play you have a 15 minute intermission and here you have a year, so you don't go into the second half with the same feeling. Ariana Grade was so amazing in the first movie, great comic timing and wonderful singing. In this second movie I found myself concerned that she wasn't getting enough to eat. She and Cynthia are great, nobody else really makes much of an impact. And no matter what bad things Jeff Goldblum does as the Wizard, I still like him. If he was our wannabe authoritarian president, at least I'd know how we got in this mess.

My wife and I have watched all five seasons and season 5 is as good as the previous 4. The show makes it in large part based on the great characters. Of course the Gary Oldman character is fantastic, but so it the rest of the group. Characters change some over the seasons which is normal for English shows and that helps to keep it interesting. If you are looking for a great show that is smart and funny with some good suspense and action then you'll have 5 great seasons to watch. Give it a few episodes if you don't immediately take to it.

There is one reason to watch this movie and it's Elle fanning. She brings all of the fun and humor to the movie as well as the best fight scene that involves only half of her. She is great as the Thia and Tessa and steals every scene she is in. The dialogue left for the whole Predator family is dopey and feels like it was modeled after Klingons, which from my perspective is not a good thing. If you can just put your brain into space travel hibernation, this movie is not a bad way to kill a couple of hours but although there are some good scenes there are not many great ones and the Predator really makes a better villain than protagonist, which is one reason the first movie is much better. The other reason is that the Predator doesn't talk in the first one.