Wicked: Part I (2024) Review
4.5/10
Number of watches at time of review: 1
synopsis
A chance meeting between Elphaba, a powerful witch who's shunned because of her green skin, and Galinda, a privileged and popular girl who longs to learn magic, lead to a journey that will change the land of Oz forever.
spoiler-free review
Jon M. Chu's Wicked: Part I lacks much of the charm of the stage musical, its runtime bloated by unnecessary additions and its visuals fine at best and drab at worst. It's a fine enough blockbuster musical, but it lacks heart. The performances are good, but not enough to warrant a three hour runtime.
Wicked: Part I (2024)
directed by Jon M. Chu
screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox
musical book by Winnie Holzman
based on the novel by Gregory Maguire
cinematography by Alice Brooks
music by John Powell and Stephen Schwartz
spoiler review
Let's start out with a positive: Cynthia Erivo's performance as Elphaba and Ariana Grande's performance as Galinda are standouts. Erivo brings rage and sadness and hopefulness to Elphaba in a wonderful performance, and Grande plays the comedy of Galinda's personality perfectly. These positives, however, are not enough to balance out the many drawbacks of the film.
The land of Oz has never looked so gray. For something based off of The Wizard of Oz (1939), which is notoriously vibrant and saturated, the colors in Wicked: Part I (2024) feel downright depressing. Things that should stand out, such as Elphaba's green skin and Galinda's pink wardrobe, are muddied and fade into the similar background colors. Nothing is as bright as it feels it should be, and it always looks like it's a cloudy day at Shiz University.
Speaking of Shiz, the location design and sets were incredible. They truly felt like Oz, like a magical land filled with wonders. The university felt like somewhere you would learn sorcery, the Wizard's room felt like the chamber of a charlatan, and the scene in Munchkinland at the beginning was a wonderful modern take on the classic Munchkin town.
The characters were well written, which is unsurprising given that they were taken straight from the musical. There weren't any major character or writing changes, besides some additional unnecessary backstory. All of the added content felt like an excuse to stretch the movie out, to justify it being two parts, rather than context needed to understand the story. There wasn't any additional exploration of the themes of the story: ostracism and how facists use strawmen to control the public. Instead, the extra time was given to lengthy dance breaks and the aforementioned backstory.
All the backstory necessary is already contained in the songs from the stage musical; songs which seemed a bit pop-ified in the film version but were still wonderfully performed. The musical portions of the film were definitely the highlight, the vocals are a joy to listen to and the choreography by Christopher Scott is mesmerizing. None of the songs are particularly improved upon by the film, but none are particularly worse than their stage counterparts.
In terms of dialogue, the sound was done very well. All the characters could be understood, and the dialogue was never overpowered by the other sounds of the movies. The dialogue's writing was also decent, but nothing really stands out about it.
Something else that didn't stand out was the cinematography - there were very few notable shots, and most of the dramatic moments were just rotating shots on the character's faces. Shots also stretched on way too long, specifically establishing shots of locations.
Another visual choice that didn't work was the decision to make the animals CGI. Given that the film is based on a stage production with completely practical effects that manages to make the animals believable, it's disappointing that the animals in the movie are fully digital. Some animatronic design would not have gone amiss to make the film feel more whimsical.
In terms of costume and hair & makeup design, the filmmakers did an excellent job. Each look feels tailored to the characters, and really represents their personalities. However, the color grading really takes away from Galinda's style. Rather than pinks that pop, the pinks feel desaturated and like they're trying to blend into the background. Another disappointment from this movie that could've been wickedly wonderful.
personal connection
I love the stage musical, which I honestly think took away from my enjoyment of the movie. If I had gone in blind with no knowledge of the plot, I'm sure I would've been much more invested in the movie. However, because I already knew all the story beats, I found the film quite a boring watch. When I heard the movie would be three hours I expected some new songs to be added, but instead it was just stretched out to pad time. The behind-the-scenes drama leading up to the movie's release didn't make me more interested either, and I found myself almost dreading the film's release because of how I expect it to be plastered everywhere, from promotional material to audiences raving about it afterwards. My negative view of the movie going in definitely colored my opinion of it, and I can admit that I may be a bit overly harsh on it because of that.
final thoughts
All in all, Wicked: Part I feels like a misstep. It's clear that there was a lot of hard work put in behind the scenes and from most of the actors, but it falls flat in its final form. Overall, it feels like the movie would've been better off as a high-quality recording of one of the stage performances, akin to when Hamilton was released on Disney+. Instead, the film is a stretched out version of something that could've been great.