10 Distracting Moments That Almost Derailed Recent Movies
7. The "Flat" Cinematography - Wicked
As soon as the first trailer for Wicked was released, there was intense online discussion about the film's polarising cinematography, many feeling that the colour grading was excessively washed out and the lighting garish.
Given that The Wizard of Oz is renowned for its strikingly vibrant Technicolor presentation, it was certainly expected that a Wicked adaptation would push saturated colours and high levels of contrast. But director Jon M. Chu and cinematographer Alice Brooks ultimately opted for a more muted aesthetic, which Chu defended as an attempt to make the film appear more "real" to audiences, surmising that audiences wouldn't connect with the story and characters if it had a more heightened visual style.
These comments didn't really wash with vast swaths of the Wicked fanbase, though, and while the picture ultimately went on to be a stonking critical and commercial success regardless, it's probably telling that of the 10 Oscar nominations it received, its cinematography was shut out.