5 min to read
Wicked- Part 1
How good is this new musical to movie adaptation?
The Good: Upon the start of the movie you will automatically see where Wicked’s greatest asset comes into play - the practical effects. If you see something in this movie, it was most likely built. Starting off in Munchkinland, you see people running through tulip fields. Those were actual tulip fields that were grown just for the movie. The train that took Elphaba and Galinda to the Emerald City was also real. These, and so many more sets, were built and really helped the cities of Oz come alive.
For Wicked being a musical and a movie, it was crucial that the film cast actresses that could both sing and act for their respective characters, and Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were perfectly cast as these characters. Not only did they have great chemistry throughout the movie, they also acted and sang their hearts out. I especially enjoyed Cynthia as Elphaba. She not only portrayed her character wonderfully, but when she was singing, every word she sang was crystal clear and perfectly understandable.
An additional aspect that makes a musical great is the choreography, and I think this movie had exceptional choreography. Not only was the dancing well done, but there were multiple instances where the movie shows a wide array of extras all dancing in unison. I was blown away how all the dance sequences (especially those with 100+ background dancers) were all in unison, which will definitely be an underappreciated aspect of this movie.
The Meh: One of my first major issues with the movie is with the use of color in the film. When I think of Oz, I immediately think of the original Wizard of Oz from the 30s. Color was used in that movie in a way where everything was so bright, vibrant, and full of color, which was game-changing back in the 30’s. Because of the heights of the original, I expected similar results with this movie. While there were a lot of good uses of color, all of the color felt a little muted and pale, almost having a greyish tint to everything. While I’d rather not be the guy that is picky on the color just to gripe about something, one of the reasons this bothers me so much is that a significant amount of the movie was shot outdoors. The use of natural light in movies tends to allow the environments and the sky to really shine and feel alive, but for this movie there were so many scenes outside (one in particular where Elphaba was running through some grass) where the sky and the entire environment looked dull, processed, and artificial, which really distracted me while watching the movie. Not every scene was like this, but enough were that I really wish the editing team could have stepped up their game in this department.
This opinion may give me the most backlash, but I don’t think most of the songs are that great besides Popular and Defy Gravity. The other songs weren’t memorable and didn’t draw me into the movie more. Additionally, when Ariana Grande sang some of her songs I couldn’t understand a word she was saying. I know Ariana was following in Kristin Chenoweth’s footsteps in that regard, but it really bugged me when I couldn’t understand a word that was being said by her for an entire song.
The Bad: The plot in the movie was not good, and I was never engaged by it. I know the movie is based on the book even more than the musical is, but I’m not even sure if the book was good because the plot of this wasn’t appealing. I’ve never found it appealing to make the bad guy in one movie (The Wizard of Oz) be a good character in another movie (Wicked). On top of that, the reason Elphaba decides to turn her back on the Wizard was because of the way animals are being treated. While there is some semblance of what animals do in Oz society, the movie didn’t do enough to sell me on that topic being absolutely crucial and significant. By the time Elphaba and others were making important decisions regarding this topic, the decisions being made felt inconsequential and unimpactful because that topic never felt truly important.
Another major issue with the movie is the pacing. The movie takes its time doing everything, for better or for worse. For the first two hours of the movie everything felt extremely slow, and because the plot was unimpressive, everything seemed to drag along. It’s only when the characters finally get to the Emerald City where the pacing actually seems to pick up for the first time.
Overall: I think there was so much greatness shown in the movie, but there is so much keeping this movie from being great. The movie should have been shorter, it should have been much prettier to look at (especially for a movie about Oz), and the plot should have been much more enjoyable. Despite my issues with the film, I know if you already enjoy the musical, there’s no reason you won’t enjoy this.
Rating: 3/5
Update: I was able to see some of the movie again (12/2/2024), and while I still stand by initial comments about the color being weird, I think it was an issue at the theater I saw the movie initially in. When we watched it again the colors were much better, but there was definitely a weird haze over everything. I think they tried to use too much direct sunlight while filming, causing not only a haze over the shots but also causing people to have so many shadows over their faces (I didn’t notice this the first time). So, while I will admit that I was initially wrong about the colors, I will not concede the fact that the story is still quite boring.
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