- Starring
- Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo
- Director
- Jon M. Chu
- Rating
- PG
- Genre
- Fantasy, Musical, Romance
- Release date
- Nov 22, 2024
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Rating Summary
Set in the Land of Oz long before Dorothy’s arrival, Wicked (Part 1) tells the story of Elphaba (ELF-ah-BAH), a young woman born with green skin, and her time at Shiz University. There, she first clashes but ultimately bonds with Glinda, a bubbly, self-absorbed social climber. Their unlikely friendship unfolds amidst political corruption, romantic rivalry, and the Wizard of Oz’s shady agenda.
Wicked Review
Sure to sweep every visual-based Academy Award this season, Wicked (part one) is almost three hours of eye candy with a movie in it. The amount of care and thoughtful detail put into every set and costume cannot be overstated. It was clearly a labor of unadorned love by the crews, both practical and digital, who participated in its creation. Between this and the constant onslaught of well-performed musical numbers, it won’t be surprising when audiences inevitably think that they’ve watched a much better movie than they have.
Although we rated the performances rather high, at 86, that’s largely thanks to Cynthia Evrivo’s shockingly subtle turn as The Wicked Witch. Evrivo infuses the once and future jaded (get it?) villain with a surprising hard-shelled vulnerability that carries the film’s entire emotional throughline. Further bolstering the performance rating are the brilliant musical numbers performed by everyone, save for a brief autotuned aberration from Michelle Yeoh, whose role is a minor one.
However, whereas Eviro’s hard green candy coating is filled with delicious authenticity, much of the rest of the cast, who are little more than glorified extras, give two-dimensional turns no deeper than the pages on which their lines are written. That’s not to say that what they have to offer is bad or even their fault. The fact of the matter is that there’s nothing much for them to sink their teeth into. They’re given neither the screentime nor the material to do more, and the result is that they perform their functions but give the audience nothing more than that.
One outlier is Jonathan Bailey, who plays Prince Fiyero. Even though he gets less screen time than most, Bailey takes full advantage of what time he does get by imbuing his otherwise two-dimensional character with a little something extra. While his talent wasn’t sufficient to fully overcome the role’s limitations, he does enough to set up what presumably will be a larger and more significant part in the sequel next November.
Then there’s Ariana Grande. Best known as a pop singer and for her roles in various Nickelodeon programs, Grande got her big break at the age of 15 when she was cast in the Broadway musical 13, about a young Jewish boy who moves from New York to a small town in Indiana.
Since the first Wicked trailer hit, much criticism has been leveled at Grande’s interpretation of Glinda. Many feared that listening to over two hours of her high-pitched, nasally, saccharine-sweet child’s voice would result in violence or self-harm. Happily, you get used to it pretty quickly. That said, Grande’s over-the-top performance would be better suited to the stage than the screen, as she over-enunciates, over-gesticulates, and generally over-acts throughout. It works to a point, serving up occasional chuckles, but the character offers so little otherwise that her schtick’s returns begin to diminish pretty quickly.
Like the stage production of Wicked, the film runs nearly three hours. However, unlike watching it on Broadway, theater audiences will have to wait a year to finish the story since it has been split into two parts, and were it not for the pretty colors and fun dance routines, you would feel every minute of your life ticking away as the first hour repeats the same information presented in different locals and musical numbers over and over again.
The original Wizard of Oz film was likewise full of music and dancing. Yet, unlike the prequel, the OG was also peopled with charismatic and relatable fun characters on a quest with achievable and identifiable goals while being harangued by a compelling and known antagonist. Wicked spends two-thirds of its runtime with a mopey Elphaba and Glinda’s Xanax-induced chipperness, trading light insults and moving their dorm room furniture around. It’s not until the film is almost over that we’re even introduced to its antagonist. Then, just as things start to get exciting… we’re treated to a musical number that obliterates the film’s momentum.
Finally, the music. There can be no doubt that it is all performed well. The entire cast, Yeoh not included, are consummate musical theater professionals who explode into masterfully choreographed, dazzling song and dance numbers… that are also completely forgettable. Ask ten strangers on the street if they can repeat any of the original film’s music, and you’ll get nine who can and a 10th who remembers it once you hum a few bars. Not so with Wicked. The music is the most generic of musical fare, with nary a catchy line or memorable chorus. I challenge anyone who watches the movie fresh, meaning having not seen a stage production or read the book, to come out of it and be able to name one side character or hum a solitary bar of a single song.
One additional note about the musical numbers: while they are wonderfully choreographed and performed, the cinematography can be a little whiplash-inducing as the filmmakers attempt to capture in three dimensions what stage productions present in 2.5.
Ultimately, Wicked has little substance but a lot of A+ sizzle.
PARENTAL NOTES
Important Information for Parents
Our Parental Notes flag the material parents may want to know about before pressing play, including profanity, blasphemy, adult content, extreme violence, frightening intensity, hyper-stimulating sequences, and other family-content concerns.
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James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
I was not interested in the preview but the main actress had a tantrum about an edited fan poster. No way I would send cash her way. I hope it bombs.
Is the main character ever shown to have black skin, or is she green from the first moment we see her?
Born green
So, should I hope them my money? I’m more confused after reading the review.
You’re confused because the movie is a mixed bag. There’s some good stuff and some meh stuff and a lot of gay stuff.
Super woke. Regret giving my money
Yea I’m confused on how Moana got Woke and this one is just Wokish. Tons of gay content and implied racism is a no go for my family. Plus all these actresses are gay and holding hands and being creepy in the interviews. I think how they promote the movies should be taken into account. I guess I would have to watch it to see how bad it is but that’s not going to happen.
The Woke-O-Meter is more a metric of mathematics than one of personal offense. It’s why we include the specific elements in the review.
I was completely turned off by the gay content, but it was in the background and brief, relative to the runtime. Moana had multiple and varied offenses that spanned the length of the film.
OK, that makes sense. Thanks for taking the time.
Many years ago, when Wicked was big on Broadway, I never saw the full show, but I did see abbreviated versions performed by middle schoolers, and I also listened to the soundtrack album. Because my exposure to the story was incomplete, I used my own thoughts and feelings to fill in the gaps. My younger self thought that Wicked was a story about how Elphaba, a talented girl with a rough background, admires the Wizard for his good deeds and resolves to use her amazing magical abilities to do good things and help others. However, when she finally meets the Wizard, she discovers that he intends to use her powers for things she considers to be evil and decides she would rather strike out on her own than be employed by a charlatan. I also thought that Galinda and Fiyero were a pair of spoiled rich kids who gradually learned to be less selfish when they discovered living for others would be more satisfying than being self-serving. I wanted to think of it as a story about heroism in spite of false perceptions.
The movie paints a very different picture than the one I formed in my head. Rather than the idealist I pictured, I thought the Elphaba in the movie had a massive chip on her shoulder and the reason she wanted to develop her magic wasn’t so much about doing good, but about vengefully showing her detractors who’s best; a common quality in a nascent villain. I thought that the movie showed Galinda’s natural talents in magic are limited, and her real talents lie in being a social climber who will parasitically latch herself onto anyone she thinks will make her more powerful or popular. Rather than becoming a genuine friend to Elphaba, I thought Galinda chose to fake a friendship with her because even though Galinda has more than most people could want such as wealth and status, she’s not-so-secretly envious of the real power that Elphaba has. In this version, I had the impression that doing good deeds wasn’t as important as the appearance of goodness; virtue-signaling and butt-kissing are at an all-time high. And yes, I did see a lot of blatant homosexual subtext in the choreography, but because I’m not really impressed or aroused by that sort of thing, I chose to shrug it off as unnecessary silliness.
Personal perception can play a big role in how the story is viewed. Perhaps the heroic version I dreamed up was naive and the selfish version depicted by the film is closer to what the story’s intentions were all along. I don’t know what the filmmaker’s intentions were, but I don’t consider vanity and envy to be virtuous. Maybe I’m supposed to walk away from it secretly hating all the legacy characters who were considered to be heroes in the original classic by tarnishing their reputations.
I have seen Wicked on Broadway when I was fifteen and your personal perception of it was 100% correct! 🙂
That’s the takeway my family and I had from the stage musical. That it was about a story of heroism despite false pretentiousness. That it was about how Elphaba, despite being used as a scapegoat by the Wizard, was a woman who stood by her values even when she thinks she lost her goodness (“No Good Goes Unpunished”). That it was about how Glinda realized her life was empty because she chose popularity and ambition over her genuine friendship with Elphaba. That it was about Fiyero learning to be a more thoughtful and caring person through Elphaba (similar to how Naveen became a better person thanks to Tiana from the Princess andt the Frog). It is a shame that this movie version (even if it is part one), is using it to promote homosexuality and critical race theory. There is no way my family and I are seeing that movie. And I don’t want to walk away from it hating the characters who were heroes in the classic 1939 film. Don’t blame Dorothy, she just wanted to get back home. There is even a video on YouTube that defends Dorothy with the title, “Don’t blame the child.” In the stage musical, it wasn’t a problem because Dorothy never appears on stage, we only see just Glinda and Elphaba talking to her off stage. It’s best to stick to the 1939 classic film.
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