Into the woods review

SPOILERS!SPOILERS!SPOILERS!

  Into the woods was previously a Broadway musical that is now being adapted into a movie starring James Cordon, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, Daniel Huttlestone and company as they all try to achieve their happily ever after but soon learn all wishes don't turn out the way you might want to or expect.
  
   I have never seen the musical before but I did read about it on Wikipedia so I know for the most part what it is about and the premise is exactly the same as the musical. The Baker and his wife want to have a kid and the witch who cursed the Baker's family will remove it if on a blue moon at midnight they give her a cow as white as milk, hair as yellow as corn, a slipper as pure as gold, and a cape as red as blood. Their story ends up intertwining with Cinderella, Jack and the bean stalk, Little red riding hood and Rapunzel and stuff goes down.

  I have said previously that I don't think there has ever been a truly great movie musicals due to the either the director have to sacrifice either the movie or the musical to make just one of them work, the length, how differently musicals are styled and performed from movies so on and so on. Into the Woods is no different.

   Yet for the first two thirds of the movie I love it, it's funny, charming, everyone can actually sing really good, the music itself is phenomenal and it looks great with the sets, costumes and make up along with most of the special effects. All of the fairy tales blend really well together. It's a really good time and you won't be bored with it at all.

   Notice however I say first two thirds and the reason I say that is because when we hit the third act everything goes crazy and the movie takes a dive towards hell faster than anything I've ever seen. This also enforces my thing about how I think you can't mesh a movie and a musical very well and expect to do both good and one of the reasons is the length of a musical compared to a movie.

  Most musicals are two act structures either of which can go on for four hours while three acts of a movie last anywhere from thirty to forty minutes. For the first two acts of Into the woods that's not a problem all of the characters motivations and characterizations are simple but well done and the end of the second act feels like the end of a movie, heck once you get to the second act you can leave the movie and get a short, fun little ride you wouldn't mind revisiting in the near future.

  The first two acts stretches over the first act of the musical allowing for everyone to get screen time and develop the characters nicely. The second act of the musical is condensed into the very short run time of the third act and the thing is the second act is the most complicated part of the musical. A lot of characters motivations for doing certain things which I will talk about later feel really rushed and out of place, some characters disappear from the movie completely and never return, and some characters die under really lame and in all honesty very confusing circumstances.

  The entire movie is very quick paced which can be jarring at first but you get used to it and it does start to slow down after a bit. Yet when the third act comes it brings the quick pace back, turns it up to eleven and the movie falls apart because of it.

   The movie's main message is that you may get what you want but it might not be what you want or good for you. Yet it never really explores that until the third act and a lot of it feels really forced when all is said and done.

  Ok back to something positive and I need to get off the third act before this gets longer than it probably will be so finally the cast and this also starts my whole SPOILERS thing because I will mention some of the characters fates.

  I love James Cordon (he's from Doctor who as Craig Owens) and Emily Blunt in the film. They act very good in the film and both sing really well especially Emily Blunt, they are both very good and likeable characters and have good chemistry together and make a very nice and believable couple. They bicker a lot but they love each other and will do anything for each other. In the film The Baker's wife (she and the baker don't have names) is kissed (although in the musical she has sex with) the prince but I do like they portray her refusing at first and quickly regretting it, what I don't like however is the movie killing her for no reason than to further the Bakers arc with his dad which is completely rushed and given no development until that point and it makes it feel like her death was really unnecessary and she feels really like a victim. This all happens in the third act by the way.

  Anna Kendrick sings very nicely in the movie and gives a good performance but I didn't really like Cinderella as I really didn't get to know her too well and there's not much too her expect being nice and kind of indecisive.

   Daniel Huttlestone as Jack and Lillia Crawford as little red riding hood did a very good job singing wise and acting wise. They had very good characters and were always fun to watch on screen and unlike a lot of  child actors weren't annoying which is very good.

  Chris Pine was also surprisingly good in this movie and can actually sing really well to the point where I kept thinking that he should consider doing Broadway since every movie he's in that's not Star Trek tends to flop. Bill Magnussen is also very good singing wise, he's not a bad actor but we never really get any sort of moments with him where he gets to only act so it's hard to decipher whether or not he's a good actor. Pine and Magnussen have probably the best song in the movie "Agony" and I won't give too much away but it's both the most hilarious part of the movie and is really nice to listen too. Mackenzie Mauzy is ok as Rapunzel, the thing with her is that she doesn't really get to sing and not act either. These three characters in the movie are some of the people who end up with the Baker's wife suffering the most because of the third act.

  In the musical Rapunzel dies but for the movie they cut it out because it was too dark. You can tell that was originally in the script to keep that key plot point before the Disney heads removed it because her and her Prince charming disappear completely from the movie and never come back. The Rapunzel story doesn't even need to be there because the only thing she adds is to give the witch some redeeming values and some dimension. Chris Pine's character also turns into a complete douchebag at the drop of a hat and it comes out of nowhere with no context or credence at all.

   Meryl Streep as always does a good job in both the singing and the acting department. She's given great songs and doesn't dare disappoint. She's got a great character and I love Streep in this type of role where she  gets to have a lot of fun. However I don't think she does that good enough of a job to warrant all the awards she's been getting except that she's Meryl Streep. I know it's been a slow year for females in supporting roles but come on there has to be enough to give awards to other than Meryl Streep. She doesn't have that Anne Hathaway "I dreamed a dream" moment really to warrant it. Also she dies in a really confusing way to the point where I and my mom kept trying to understand her death scene but kept failing at it.

  Now finally Johnny Depp as The Big bad wolf. In all honest there was no reason for him to be there as he dies fifteen minutes into it. He's not bad in any department but it was kind of jarring seeing him there in a really awkward and silly costume that would have made way more sense and looked better if he had been in motion capture and had been an actual CGI wolf. In fact with how little he's in the movie  you could have asked for a less expense Broadway actor like Hadley Fraser or Ramin Karimloo who in all honest would have been better than Johnny Depp who again was not bad but had no purpose to be there.

I give this movie a 6.5/10- This movie was great and I really enjoyed it up until  the third act. Still it's a movie I do recommend seeing if you want to have a good time.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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