A magical adventure has hit the big screen, with amazingly done musical scenes and compelling characters. “Wicked” part one, has been a long time coming and it has finally been released to glowing reviews on Rotten Tomatos.
(Spoilers for the movie and act two of “Wicked” ahead)
On Nov. 22, the “Wicked” movie was released, with development starting in 2016 this movie was planned to be released during 2019, but this plan didn’t work and it was pushed back to late 2021. Yet again, production was stalled because of the 2020 pandemic and after a writers strike the movie was finally released.
The story follows the Wicked Witch from “The Wizard of Oz” whose name is Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) in this musical. Throughout part one of this musical we are shown her backstory from before and after she was born. Melena Thropp (Courtney Mae-Briggs) plays Elphaba’s mom who has an affair that leads to Elphaba having green skin and magical powers.
Elphaba later meets her professor, Dr. Dillamond (Peter Dinklage), a talking goat who is discriminated against because he isn’t a human. Elphaba and Dillamond bond over this because Elphaba is also discriminated against. In the article, (Spoilers)“Here’s Why the Wizard Hates Animals”,Richard Nebens says, “This is used as a poignant allegory for racism and other forms of prejudice in the real world, as removing the animals’ voices strips their means of fighting back.” In the Oz World animals are blamed for a great drought that almost wiped out Emerald City, they are bullied into losing their voices basically.
A beautiful thing about this production is that a majority of the sets are built practically, this is a little touch that looks great, like the spinning bookshelves in “Dancing through Life”. The costumes and choreography were done well and no particular costumes were out of place.
This musical has many things that warrant a watch, but some issues are hard to look past.
The film isn’t very pretty, the color grading and lighting felt like an afterthought, and some shots have some egregious glare which is kind of hard to look at. Thankfully these scenes don’t linger on for too long. Colorful environments were something that the original “The Wizard of Oz” was known for and in the film, the colors seemed to me dimmed which makes the film uglier. Lighting isn’t a strong point for the film, the most creative use of lighting is during the end of “Popular” when it becomes a Glinda (Arinana Grande) solo. Besides that scene, nothing creative is done with lighting.
Another thing that is worth mentioning is the celebrity cameos, some are exceptionally done and aren’t out of place. Others not so much, such as Jeff Goldblum’s casting as the Wizard, the problem is the Wizard’s character is just Goldblum, whenever he speaks or even sings, I just think “why is Jeff Goldblum singing?” He doesn’t work for me and I think he could have been replaced with someone else.
“Wicked” has currently grossed $455 million, in revenue this guarantees the creation of the second part. Which won’t be as compelling as the first part. “Wicked” part two most likely won’t live up to the hype that drove the first part. Based on what has been done with the musical, this could become very cluttered with a bunch of side plots that are all over the place. Overall, “Wicked” is a great product that has few minor weaknesses that don’t drag down the film.
4/5
