As someone who loves the musical so much that I’ve seen it twice, I was very concerned that the new “Wicked” movie would not live up to the hype. Unfortunately, I was correct.
The movie acts as a prequel to “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” explaining the backstory behind the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, and the Good Witch, Galinda. It clarifies that the two seeming enemies actually used to be friends when they went to school together at Shiz University.
The issues with this movie have little to do with the content, and more to do with what felt missing as a viewer. For an almost three-hour movie, I felt as though it lacked meaningful content to justify the length. There were many moments between songs where I found myself getting bored watching the smaller side plots or random conversations. This is definitely emphasized by the fact that this movie is going to be followed by another, equally long part, even though it is already as long as the original musical.
Aside from boredom, the music was also very disappointing to me. Don’t get me wrong, both Ariana Grande who portrayed Galinda, and Cynthia Erivo who portrayed Elphaba, have fantastic voices. However, it simply did not feel like there was enough emphasis on the songs as they often felt fragmented and cut off too soon. I especially felt this with the final song “Defying Gravity” because while singing, the two main characters were simultaneously fighting each other and hundreds of guards. For a song that is so important to both the plot and the legacy of “Wicked,” it felt underappreciated.
It is important to note that my opinion on this movie is not necessarily the popular one. “Wicked” got a score of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.1/10 on IMDb. There are a lot of things to like about this movie: it is fun, it is colorful, it has famous songs and a very famous cast.
One thing I did appreciate about “Wicked” was the set design. All of the sets were eye-catching, setting the perfect scene for the movie. They were very realistic, as the production intentionally avoided too much CGI, while still creating the magical effect that the movie needed.
Ultimately, my problem with “Wicked” the movie is that it just did not leave me with the same heartwarming feeling that I had when I saw the play. Maybe it was simply the fact that the story was portrayed through a screen, but it did not feel as authentic to me.
Overall, “Wicked” did not live up to all of the hype around it. It failed to recreate the original story in a way that was equally compelling and was not a very enjoyable watch.
