On November 24, 2025 — three days after “Depraved: For Good” hit theaters and made magic on the field workplace — an account known as @DiscussingFish on the social media platform X posted a joke in regards to the movie. “Jon M. Chu has confirmed he ‘Forgot’ to do the colour grading for each ‘WICKED’ motion pictures,” the account, which is clearly mimicking accounts like @DiscussingFilm, wrote, attributing a quote to Chu that merely reads, “My fault.”
Chu himself responded to the publish elsewhere and known as it “clickbait,” however it additionally hyperlinks to a Selection piece about how Chu forgot to name “lower” whereas filming a very emotional scene between Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba Thropp and Ariana Grande-Butera’s Glinda the Good Witch in “Depraved: For Good.” The explanation this joke even occurred within the first place, although, is the colours in “Depraved: For Good” look, uh, dangerous.
Different folks on X observed this downside too. Extra particularly, followers took umbrage with photos of sensible units supposedly used for each of Chu’s “Depraved” movies — 2024’s “Depraved: Half One” being the opposite — based mostly on the cinematic outcome we obtained. X person @thediegocrespo reposted pictures of the brightly coloured units with the caption “Director and DP needs to be sued for malpractice,” referencing each Chu and the film’s cinematographer Alice Brooks. When questioned, he continued with some options: “Correct lighting, lensing, [and] blocking of actors inside a scene make a world of distinction. Loads of motion pictures shot digitally (and with a lot of VFX) look fantastic. It is simply poorly carried out with ‘Depraved.'”
I do not disagree with any of this, and I additionally assume that is half of a bigger downside. The “Depraved” motion pictures, that are partially based mostly on one of the vital famously colourful motion pictures in historical past, aren’t visible feasts, and even worse, they are not alone.
Ugly, sludgy CGI is a contemporary cinematic epidemic
“The Wizard of Oz,” made in 1939, is legendary for its gorgeous use of Technicolor because it presents the well-known ruby slippers, the Yellow Brick Highway, and the Emerald Metropolis. Sadly, none of these cinematic treasures are given a respectful therapy in both of Jon M. Chu’s “Depraved” motion pictures. The Emerald Metropolis is a muddy shade of inexperienced, the Yellow Brick Highway is muted (maybe due to the way in which the film hyperlinks it to oppression), and people ruby slippers follow the canonical silver presentation (although they do briefly flip pink in “Depraved: For Good”). It is silly to fake, although, that this downside is in any approach particular to the “Depraved” movies; blockbusters simply appear to be this now.
Each the massive and small display screen function frankly insulting examples of sludgy, cruddy CGI results that blur collectively and dampen colours to make every little thing look muffled and terrible. Consider, I do not know, virtually any superhero film, and you may notice what I imply; even way back to 2019, an episode within the last season of “Recreation of Thrones” titled “The Lengthy Night time” did not grade any of its colours, rendering it practically pitch-black. Movies like “The Wizard of Oz” and different colourful classics like “Singin’ within the Rain” really feel like bygone artifacts of previous eras, as a result of each time a brand new big-budget film comes out, we’re all handled to muted CGI and flat colours as an alternative of the visible feasts you need from a big-screen epic. It is irritating that, for a movie that makes use of a lot colour in its advertising and marketing — pink for Glinda and inexperienced for Elphaba — all of it appears to be like so lifeless while you see it in motion.
Depraved: For Good has different issues past its unpopular aesthetics
The worst half is that, even with all of the bellyaching I have been doing about “Depraved: For Good” and the way it appears to be like, I genuinely loved a variety of this film. Ariana Grande-Butera and Cynthia Erivo are each glorious, the titular friendship ballad “For Good” made me just a little misty, and I do now agree that it was a good suggestion to separate “Depraved” into two motion pictures. Nonetheless, there’s one thing I need to harp on but once more about “Depraved: For Good” — it takes a Broadway act that does not take up multiple hour of time and greater than doubles that run-time for completely no motive.
If we will complain about motion pictures trying flat and muted lately, due to digital filmmaking and VFX, we must always additionally be incensed that blockbusters refuse to maintain their runtimes affordable. I am fairly certain a film makes the identical amount of cash whether or not it is lengthy or brief, and I am much more sure that “Depraved: For Good” would have been so much higher if it had significantly condensed every little thing, lower the frankly missable new songs written for Erivo and Grande-Butera (by the Broadway present’s composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, no much less), and tightened up the narrative. Is it dangerous that “Depraved: For Good” appears to be like like that? Yeah. Is it worse that “Depraved: For Good” appears to be like like that and makes you sit there for nicely over two hours as nicely? That is a definitive, resounding sure.
“Depraved: For Good” is in theaters now.
On November 24, 2025 — three days after “Depraved: For Good” hit theaters and made magic on the field workplace — an account known as @DiscussingFish on the social media platform X posted a joke in regards to the movie. “Jon M. Chu has confirmed he ‘Forgot’ to do the colour grading for each ‘WICKED’ motion pictures,” the account, which is clearly mimicking accounts like @DiscussingFilm, wrote, attributing a quote to Chu that merely reads, “My fault.”
Chu himself responded to the publish elsewhere and known as it “clickbait,” however it additionally hyperlinks to a Selection piece about how Chu forgot to name “lower” whereas filming a very emotional scene between Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba Thropp and Ariana Grande-Butera’s Glinda the Good Witch in “Depraved: For Good.” The explanation this joke even occurred within the first place, although, is the colours in “Depraved: For Good” look, uh, dangerous.
Different folks on X observed this downside too. Extra particularly, followers took umbrage with photos of sensible units supposedly used for each of Chu’s “Depraved” movies — 2024’s “Depraved: Half One” being the opposite — based mostly on the cinematic outcome we obtained. X person @thediegocrespo reposted pictures of the brightly coloured units with the caption “Director and DP needs to be sued for malpractice,” referencing each Chu and the film’s cinematographer Alice Brooks. When questioned, he continued with some options: “Correct lighting, lensing, [and] blocking of actors inside a scene make a world of distinction. Loads of motion pictures shot digitally (and with a lot of VFX) look fantastic. It is simply poorly carried out with ‘Depraved.'”
I do not disagree with any of this, and I additionally assume that is half of a bigger downside. The “Depraved” motion pictures, that are partially based mostly on one of the vital famously colourful motion pictures in historical past, aren’t visible feasts, and even worse, they are not alone.
Ugly, sludgy CGI is a contemporary cinematic epidemic
“The Wizard of Oz,” made in 1939, is legendary for its gorgeous use of Technicolor because it presents the well-known ruby slippers, the Yellow Brick Highway, and the Emerald Metropolis. Sadly, none of these cinematic treasures are given a respectful therapy in both of Jon M. Chu’s “Depraved” motion pictures. The Emerald Metropolis is a muddy shade of inexperienced, the Yellow Brick Highway is muted (maybe due to the way in which the film hyperlinks it to oppression), and people ruby slippers follow the canonical silver presentation (although they do briefly flip pink in “Depraved: For Good”). It is silly to fake, although, that this downside is in any approach particular to the “Depraved” movies; blockbusters simply appear to be this now.
Each the massive and small display screen function frankly insulting examples of sludgy, cruddy CGI results that blur collectively and dampen colours to make every little thing look muffled and terrible. Consider, I do not know, virtually any superhero film, and you may notice what I imply; even way back to 2019, an episode within the last season of “Recreation of Thrones” titled “The Lengthy Night time” did not grade any of its colours, rendering it practically pitch-black. Movies like “The Wizard of Oz” and different colourful classics like “Singin’ within the Rain” really feel like bygone artifacts of previous eras, as a result of each time a brand new big-budget film comes out, we’re all handled to muted CGI and flat colours as an alternative of the visible feasts you need from a big-screen epic. It is irritating that, for a movie that makes use of a lot colour in its advertising and marketing — pink for Glinda and inexperienced for Elphaba — all of it appears to be like so lifeless while you see it in motion.
Depraved: For Good has different issues past its unpopular aesthetics
The worst half is that, even with all of the bellyaching I have been doing about “Depraved: For Good” and the way it appears to be like, I genuinely loved a variety of this film. Ariana Grande-Butera and Cynthia Erivo are each glorious, the titular friendship ballad “For Good” made me just a little misty, and I do now agree that it was a good suggestion to separate “Depraved” into two motion pictures. Nonetheless, there’s one thing I need to harp on but once more about “Depraved: For Good” — it takes a Broadway act that does not take up multiple hour of time and greater than doubles that run-time for completely no motive.
If we will complain about motion pictures trying flat and muted lately, due to digital filmmaking and VFX, we must always additionally be incensed that blockbusters refuse to maintain their runtimes affordable. I am fairly certain a film makes the identical amount of cash whether or not it is lengthy or brief, and I am much more sure that “Depraved: For Good” would have been so much higher if it had significantly condensed every little thing, lower the frankly missable new songs written for Erivo and Grande-Butera (by the Broadway present’s composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, no much less), and tightened up the narrative. Is it dangerous that “Depraved: For Good” appears to be like like that? Yeah. Is it worse that “Depraved: For Good” appears to be like like that and makes you sit there for nicely over two hours as nicely? That is a definitive, resounding sure.
“Depraved: For Good” is in theaters now.
