Wicked

The film adaptation of Wicked is based on the Broadway musical, which is a loose adaptation of the 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. Both Maguire’s novel and the musical are expansions of L. Frank Baum’s original The Wizard of Oz novel was published in 1900 and its film adaptation in 1939. The musical is one of the longest-running and financially successful Broadway musicals of all time. With a screenplay by Winnie Holzman (writer of the book of the Wicked musical) and Dana Fox (Cruella) and directed by Jon M. Chu (Now You See Me 2, Crazy Rich Asians), Wicked begins around the time The Wizard of Oz ends. The Wicked Witch of the West has died and Glinda the Good Witch is breaking the news to Munchkinland. As the munchkins celebrate and burn a giant, Wicker Man-style witch in celebration of the witch’s death, Glinda is asked by one of the munchkins if she knew the witch. What follows is nearly three hours of how a green-skinned, outcast girl named Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) whose emotions spark wondrous fits of unbelievable magic interacts with the spoiled, entitled, and pink-infatuated Galinda (Ariana Grande) as they enroll in a magic school known as Shiz University. Visually, Wicked is jaw-dropping and beautiful. All of the talking animals look extraordinary and every sequence with the flying monkeys is a visual highlight. Peter Dinklage voices a goat teacher named Dr. Dillamond and he has one of the most emotional arcs in the film. The bear nurse and dog doctor in the opening moments of the film look so good for what little amount of screen time they have. Given how many VFX teams are credited in the film, it’s no wonder the CGI looks intricately gorgeous. The three VFX teams with the most credits in Wicked include OPSIS (The Fall Guy, Rescue Rangers), Framestore (Gladiator II, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), and ILM (Venom: The Last Dance, Alien: Romulus). Then there’s various work from about a dozen different other VFX teams/houses, but the most intriguing one is one called FoyProAI. FoyProAI doesn’t have an accessible official website, but some digging around on an executive producer’s LinkedIn page gives some background. Foy stands for Fountains of Youth and FoyProAI specializes in de-aging, up-aging, and beauty work in film. They’ve worked on Smile 2, John Woo’s The Killer for Peacock, and 400 shots on Wicked. There are moments of greatness in Wicked that mostly stem from the chemistry between Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Grande’s comedic roots, specifically her time and experience on SNL, really come into play here. Grande is essentially the comedic relief as Galinda as her outgoing personality carries most sequences while Erivo has more of a straightforward performance that has more of a dry delivery. But the generic musical formula is infuriating. Story beats pause and go out of their way to cater to multiple songs at times and it logically hurts your brain. Yes, it’s a musical and yes people are going to sing. But when the main characters are trying to get away on a flying broom as guards are pounding at the door and they spend another ten minutes dancing, crying, and bellowing about their broken friendship it becomes a nuisance. Get on the damn broom and sing on the way to your destination. It doesn’t seem that hard. Some sequences are thrown in solely because they’ll make a big song more appealing (the whole rotating library straight out of Inception thing) or side stories that don’t go anywhere because two characters need to seem closer than they are (Elphaba and Fiyero’s awkward ten-minute excursion into the forest to free a lion cub). These are both roundabout executions that take the long way to showcase that Fiyero thinks reading is dumb and that he’s actually in love with Elphaba over Galinda. The film adaptation seems like it’s quite faithful to its source material, but the Hollywood concept of transforming nasty and recognizable villains into sad, relatable characters that the audience roots for is a dumpster fire of a concept. Pure asshole villains can be fantastic too and often make protagonists more interesting if done right. But the musical fantasy film treats Elphaba like dirt for the first hour and a half. Everyone looks down on her because of the color of her skin. Then when she finally becomes friends with Galinda, she develops a soft spot for mistreated animals. It’s the main reason she turns against The Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) apart from being one of the only characters who can read magic spells. Wicked is Mean Girls at Hogwarts as everybody sucks and is superficial apart from a character that is supposed to be evil. Elphaba mostly accepts the role of wicked witch because her beliefs don’t match anyone else’s and she’s unwilling to adapt to their ways solely to keep the peace. Wicked features some unreal VFX and even touches on some incredible ideas from time to time, but the ideas that work seem to stem from capitalizing on a fantasy world that was established over a century ago. As a film, Wicked conjures song after song and drags on and on solely because it’s a bloated musical that wants you to die a rhythmic, sometimes undecipherable, high-pitched death.

*THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS* I've been a Wicked fan since 2010. My expectations for this film were extremely high! And I was blown away by how Jon M. Chu was able to bring this story a new life. Everyone involved did an excellent job! The choice to sing live paid off! Not one note was out of tune! Bowen Yang & Bronwyn James were absolutely hilarious as Phannee & Shen Shen. Marissa Bode was fantastic as Nessarose. Can't wait to see her story continue in Part 2. I hope they include "Wicked Witch of the East" in the Part 2 Soundtrack. Ethan Slater was great as Boq. I'm excited to see how he becomes the Tin Man in Part 2 because that's not shown on stage. He transforms behind the cabinet but I hope we actually see it in Part 2. Michelle Yeoh was great in every scene as Madam Morrible. She was very Wicked! Jeff Goldblum was amazing as The Wizard! I loved the new version of The Grimmerie! The way it opened was very cool! Jonathan Bailey was incredibly charming as Fiyero! Dancing Through Life was very well choreographed and his singing was great! Loved the way he met Elphaba in this version. I'm very intrigued to see him become The Scarecrow in Part 2. Ariana Grande was absolutely phenomenal as Glinda! She embodied everything about Glinda! Loved her homages to past Glindas in Popular. Her voice was very Angelic. You can tell that she studied a lot for this role. Can't wait to hear her "I'm Not That Girl (Reprise)". Cynthia Erivo stole the show as Elphaba Thropp. She poured her heart into this character! I'm so excited to hear "No Good Deed" in Part 2! She was incredible! As for the Cameos in One Short Day, Loved seeing Stephen Schwartz as The Guard & Winnie Holtzman as an Emerald City Resident. Love the expansion of the Wizomania show to include Kristin & Idina telling the story of The Grimmerie. Loved that Idina did her Elphie Battle Cry. It didn't take away from Cynthia's at the End. The Film was meant to happen in 2024. Had it come out in 2016 or 2019, I don't think it would've been as well done as it was! I can't wait to see Part 2 and how much of The Wizard of Oz they include. I hope we get to see Dorothy's Face. 10/10 No Notes.

OK, so I'm going to be swimming against the tide a bit with this, but I didn't love it. We start where the "Wizard of Oz" story finishes off, only without the catchy "Ding Dong the Witch is...". Instead we get an ensemble dance number that is energetically performed, colourful and expertly choreographed but instantly forgettable. Then we meet "Galinda" (Ariana Grande) who arrives in her pink bubble to confirm the news and enjoy the celebrations. Turns out, though, that she and the erstwhile "Wicked Witch of the West" were once friends and so back in time we go to the birth of a little green baby who may (or may not) have been conceived within the bounds of happily married wedlock. Scoot on many years more and we discover that said green person - "Elphaba" (Cynthia Erivo) is accompanying her wheelchair bound sister "Nessarose" (Marissa Bode) to the "Ozian" equivalent of "Hogwarts" where she encounters the snobbish "Galinda" and a fairly comprehensive degree of hostility. Luckily for her, the legendary sorceress "Madame Morrible" (Michelle Yeoh) spots some hidden talent in this young woman and soon she is sharing rooms with her new nemesis and finding herself the butt of school jokes. Then enter the mischievous prince "Fiyero" (Jonathan Bailey) who tends to treat everyone the same and who's been kicked out of more schools that he can shake a sceptre at. He does, however, manage to create an environment in which everyone can get along and that's when things begin to change for an "Elphaba" who is to be made likeable by her now pally roomie. When a letter arrives from the all-powerful Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) summoning her to the "Emerald City", then they set off hoping to find answers to all of their questions, only to find that nothing there is as it seems... I have to admit that JB has been a friend of mine for many years, so I ain't going to be saying anything bad about the man who might just be the next "007", and both Erivo and Grande do well enough with the set piece musical numbers - especially the lively and cleverly written "Populer/lar", but the rest of this just struck me as "Harry Potter" goes to the musicals where it meets "Mean Girls". Goldblum makes his presence felt, but in the same slightly affected fashion that he aways does, and though the visual effects are all fantastic, somehow they are all just so much more sterile to watch than when you see them within the confines of a theatrical stage - where this works so much better, and without the need for the commercially exploitative part 1 and part 2 released months apart. To be fair, everyone looks like they are enjoying themselves, there's a fun number from Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth and Bailey brings some much needed charm to the proceedings but I'd probably just prefer a director's cut that offered us the whole story in one three hour chunk so we can get that mediocre "Defying Gravity" power ballad out of the way (repeatedly) in one fell swoop. It's a very polished production, and maybe the hype has just got to me, but I can't pretend I wasn't disappointed by this. Wilted more than wicked, sorry.