Alright! Today I'm reviewing the 2024 smash-hit Wicked, an adaptation of the Broadway musical that tells the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. We always imagine her as the vain, cruel, cartoonishly evil mistress of Oz killed by Dorothy Gale, but Wicked begs the question: Is there more to the story? Is she really as bad as everyone says? And how did she end up so, well, wicked?
First of all, I'm an absolute sucker for The Wizard of Oz. It's one of my favorite movies ever, and I relish any chance to return to the magical land. I loved Oz the Great and Powerful, I liked the bits in Once Upon A Time, and I even liked Return to Oz! So I already started with a bit of bias to love this movie, but also with the drawback that Oz has a very specific color scheme, vibe, and style. It has to be done just right, and one caliber off destroys all credibility.
Luckily, that's not a problem for Wicked. The set design is perfect, the costumes are elaborate, the dialogue is wonderfully whimsical, and the doohickeys and gizmo levers that run all the fancy contraptions are perfectly made. It's visually marvelous and full of bright colors that are sure to delight, always a pleasure to watch - which is a good thing, too, given that the movie is nearly three hours long.
That being said, yes. This movie is nearly three hours long. I think it's safe to say the biggest problem with most movie musicals is that they're exceptionally long - after all, they're adapting two acts of a play while also adding music and new scenes to make it more cinematic! So I was actually relieved to hear that they would split Wicked into two movies - one for act one (this one) and one for act two (Wicked: For Good, due to come out later this year), meaning the movies would be shorter and more accessible, right? Right? Well, actually, Wicked (Titled onscreen as Wicked: Part One) runs at a stunning two hours and forty-seven minutes, making it longer than the original Broadway play.
But I'll say this - I was hooked for the entire screen time. I was absolutely eating it up, the more time the better! The pacing was superb, and as soon as you think the movie might be dragging, they kick it into high gear by visiting Emerald City. No time is wasted, and nearly every song is an upbeat roller coaster of emotion and dance (No watching Jean Val-Jean mutter through another 6-minute ballad!). Being introduced to the world of Oz, then seeing the development of Elpheba and Gah-linda, the school tropes and cliches, the rising underground threat, and then the finale! It was super fun to watch and dissect!
I do, however, have a fear that it won't be as gripping on a rewatch and would actually drag a bit - and, spoiler alert, that is one of my two criticisms of the movie. My other criticism is that I think it should have had more scenes! The subplot of Elpheba learning magic under Michelle Yeoh's tutelage barely has one scene devoted to it, so I never felt that she was progressing with her magic at this school for magic/understood if she was an apt and powerful magic user by the finale. But!!! For a three-hour movie, if the singular two criticisms are "I wish it had more scenes" and "Maybe on a rewatch it's not as fun," that should say something about the superb quality of the movie.
I think my absolute favorite part of the movie was the two leads. I'm still undecided about whether I had a favorite between the two, but I think Ariana Grande was absolutely perfect as Gah-linda. I might just be uncultured, but the only thing I had ever heard from Ariana Grande's music was "Break Free" from The Good Place pilot, so hearing her bust out these absolutely gorgeous Broadway vocals in the first scene blew my socks off (And, upon further research, it appears she has a vocal range of four octaves. My bad, guys, I didn't know).
Her acting was also superb - wonderfully petty, shallow, and Regina George-y, as her character is introduced as a hilarious bimbo before evolving into a complex and emotionally empathetic woman (who is still kind of a bimbo). She nailed the hilarity of the character as well, balancing already funny lines with superb delivery and physical humor while still pulling Oscar-worthy emotional scenes. The Glinda you meet at the end of the movie is very different than how she began, and the journey is genuinely heartwarming. I'd like to give her a gold star for the acting in a scene halfway through the movie - after loathing each other deeply, Gah-linda finds Elpheba in a difficult situation and has pity on her, saving her from social embarrassment and dances with her. The way the movie does it helps with the dramatic effect - no music, no lyrics, no dialogue, just the actors emoting... It's safe to say that many tears were shed.
My other favorite part of the movie was Cynthia Erivo as Elpheba. Elpheba is everything you could want from a protagonist - she's smart, funny, self-assured, witty, flawed, confident, weak, capable, but still accepts help - and, consequently, the movie depends on the actress being a wrecking ball of talent to portray all of those traits. I don't normally think about things like this, but I found myself thinking, "Wow, I hope kids who watch this movie recognize her as a role model." She's utterly fantastic and one of the best leads to come out of Hollywood in the past decade. In an age of critically lambasted and controversial female protagonists, Wicked gives us two that are superb and Academy-nominated and makes it look easy.
I also loved the direction in the movie! After making the superb adaptation of In the Heights in 2021, John M. Chu returns to show he's... well, he's really the only person in all of Hollywood's history that understands how to adapt Broadway musicals to the big screen. The musical sequences are all exhilarating and pertinent; nothing drags, the story is gripping and emotional, while oftentimes hilarious, the cast is all superb, and everything blends together perfectly. (Well, actually, the aforementioned training of Elpheba was barely in the movie, and the animal cruelty subplot just kinda dropped in and out, but those are minor concerns, and what you see on screen more than compensates.)
As someone who has never seen the musical, I also applaud them for how I wasn't able to tell where they added the extra scenes. Seeing that this Part One is longer than the entire Broadway show might make you think it's filled to the brim with fluff; quite the contrary, I felt like everything involved was essential to the movie's story (Hence why it also moved extremely well). There was one song with Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth that I imagined was written for the film, but even then, only because I knew they were the original Broadway actors and figured the original play wouldn't give so much time to two randos. I also liked Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard! Out of all the quirky actors in Hollywood, he's probably the best man for the job.
I also loved the music score from John Powell (How to Train Your Dragon). With such powerful music, one might think it would be easy to phone in the actual score of the film; quite the contrary, there are several moments here where the world and characters are allowed to breathe underneath a beautiful original film composition. Not even normal movies give composers that chance, even less musicals! Really hitting it out of the ballpark on every note. I could also go on and on about the "Defying Gravity" scene and the fantastic costumes, but I think this review is already pretty long and that you can guess my feelings would be positive!
Overall, I give Wicked a 10/10. "The greatest movie musical since The Wizard of Oz."
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| So... is Dorothy gonna drop a house on a lady in a wheelchair? |
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