WICKED REVIEW

John M. Chu delivers a colorful musical and visual spectacle that often feels drawn out.

I’m pretty sure I won’t be the only person who has never seen the Broadway musical, Wicked, before seeing this movie, although I had plenty of chances to see it, if I really had any interest in doing so. That’s partially why I really appreciate it when filmmakers decide that a musical is strong enough to spend the bucks transitioning it into a feature film. Without having seen the musical, I may have to do some more reading why anyone thought this musical should be a two-parter, at well over 2 and a half hours just for Part 1. 

Wicked (Part One) begins exactly where the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz left off, with the death of the Wicked Witch of the West. Ariana Grande’s Glinda (aka “The Good Witch”) appears to tell the celebrating townspeople of her own past with the witch before her ascension to the despotic terror of Oz she would eventually become. Yes, Wicked, the musical, is indeed a prequel to the ‘30s musical movie where we go back to the birth of Elphaba Throbb, the Governor’s daughter, who was born with green skin, already making her an outcast who is bullied from a young age. She also has powerful magic that appears whenever she gets mad, and like another green fictional character, she seemingly is ALWAYS MAD. Later, Elphaba and her wheelchair-bound younger sister Nessarose (Marrisa Bode) are arriving at the oddly-named “Shiz University” where they first meet the popular, outgoing Glinda, who is trying to garner the attention and favor of the school’s professor of magic, Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible. Before anyone can say, “Wait a second, is this musical actually based on Harry Potter?,” there’s a competition forming between the popular Glinda and Elphaba, who also end up as roommates.

I’ll take a break from the film’s plot summary right there to discuss the first half of the film which really does become a bit like the “Harry Potter” movies with a school run by a group of popular kids, mostly Glinda and her entourage, with Elphaba having even more problems making friends than Nessarose. There is a dopey schoolmate named Boq, played by Ethan Slater, who is smitten by Glinda but ends up being pawned off on Elphaba’s sister. There’s also the Prince Fiyero, played by Jonathan Bailey of Bridgerton, who Glinda likes but seems more interested in Elphaba, and yeah, I guess there’s just a lot more plot to this to get to, including an ongoing subplot about the speaking animals of Oz being silenced and lessened by greater forces. This is exemplified by the school’s sole animal professor, a goat named Dr. Dillamond, as voiced by Peter Dinklage.

The fact that I couldn’t even describe the plot of Wicked in a few short sentences – again, this is only Part 1, remember – is a good example of the problems of a movie where there are just too many characters and too much going on. Presumably, much of that stems from the musical, but it’s a bit much for anyone fondly remembering the relative simplicity of the 1939 movie.

By the halfway point, you’ve already been introduced to so many characters and subplots that the untrained brain might be reeling from so much information, and that is a constant problem that hinders Wicked. Going into the movie not knowing the musical means you might feel somewhat bombarded. It just feels that some of the subplots, including Nessarose and her subplot with Boq, feel unnecessary.

Grande’s Glinda is the film’s undeniable scene-stealer with every line she delivers and every flip of her hair, and Erivo is also good, finding a way to be quite likable even going into the movie knowing her eventual fate. Even without seeing the stage musical, I could totally see how Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel would have killed these roles on stage. 

Following In the Heights with an even bigger musical like this one, Jon M. Chu proves himself to be one of the best filmmakers when it comes to the musical genre – sorry, Rob Marshall – because he seems to know what works and what absolutely must be included while creating a huge spectacle of a movie in every respect.

Besides Grande, the highlight for most will clearly be the songs and music by Steven Schwartz. I went into this musical really not knowing any of the songs, and few of them really stuck with me after watching the movie, even though I generally enjoyed the musical component, including the additional score provided by John Powell. The overall musical score perfectly embellishes the wild and colorful locales that highlight some of the best production design of the year from six-time Oscar nominee Nathan Crowley (Wonka), who should finally win this year. Every scene and shot just looks gorgeous due to his brilliant design work, as well as the fantastic costumes by Paul Tazewell (Hamilton, West Side Story, and unironically, The Wiz Live!) 

Eventually, Elphaba is invited to the Emerald City by the great and powerful Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) with her manipulative “bestie” Glinda tagging along. This is when we get to the real story, as Goldblum is a welcome addition from all the snarkiness back at Shiz. He sees the potential in Elphaba to cast spells from within a book called “the Grimmerie,” and indeed, it’s something Elphaba excels at, even if her first attempt transforms the Wizard’s monkey guards in a predictable way.

Wicked, the film, just takes its sweet time building to that action-packed last act, leaving things off at a fantastic cliffhanger with Elphaba in such a different place than when we met her. Having not seen the musical, I have no idea how much of the above came directly from it – including that subplot about Oz’s animals. Maybe the filmmakers should have been more conscious that even fans of the musical – and I’ve heard from a few devout musical fan friends that they didn’t like Wicked – may have been fine leaving some of those bits out.

That aside, Chu has done a fantastic job creating a visual and musical spectacle that gets the viewer amped up and left wanting more after such a great ending, though some might also feel it needed to get to the Emerald City portion much faster. Because of that, I enjoyed Wicked the movie just fine, but it might not be the best first introduction to this musical. To be fair, only being Part 1 means it might also be too soon to tell for sure.

Rating: 7/10

Wicked (Part 1) opens nationwide on November 22.