Cinema from the Spectrum

Wicked finally arrives on the big screen after having taken the world of Broadway by storm since 2003. But as many fans of the musical would tell you, Wicked isn’t just a prequel to the beloved Technicolor classic The Wizard of Oz as we know it, but a modernization of L. Frank Baum’s beloved fairy tale that tries to give us a full picture from what Oz was like before Dorothy Gale had landed in there. This wouldn’t be the first time such reinventions have been attempted on screen, but given the lavish nature that a fantastical world like Oz would present, or the status that Wicked carries as one of the most beloved musicals of the twenty-first century, you would only hope that a film adaptation matches that sense of spectacle.

As the first of a two-part film adaptation of the beloved musical, it only fits that this prequel to The Wizard of Oz starts right where we remember Dorothy Gale’s story ended as the Munchkins of Munchkinland are celebrating the demise of the Wicked Witch of the West. That also happens to be the perfect moment for Glinda the Good (Ariana Grande) to tell her story, so as to assure those who celebrate her death that she wasn’t always so wicked, and thus that’s where we are introduced to the story of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo). Born with green skin, Elphaba is mostly cast aside at Shiz University where she and Glinda (then “Galinda”) are studying, but nonetheless catches the attention of Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), to Glinda’s chagrin – which only increases as the two of them share a suite together.

Knowing that Wicked is only part one of a whole might be what makes or breaks this movie for most. But given the stage musical’s very highly devoted fanbase, it might already do enough to satisfy fans – owing to the fact that both Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande bounce perfectly off one another. In fact, the musical talents of the two of them might be what keeps Wicked fun for most viewers, because they’re giving their whole life to both of their parts. Erivo plays Elphaba with such vulnerability too, creating new dimensions to the Wicked Witch of the West as many would have understood her, just as Ariana Grande’s take on Glinda the Good is all the more fun because she plays her narcissism up to a tee so that we’d believe her growth before she becomes the truly pure-hearted soul we’d recognized her to be through all these years.

It’s easy enough to have fun with the musical numbers when they’re all very lively too, given that Jon M. Chu is no stranger to directing dance films. But for a large-scale production like Wicked, it’s not quite enough to stay true to the musical’s Broadway origins. Even where the musical itself would take you back to the land of Oz and capture the same sense of visual grandeur that one would remember from Victor Fleming’s beloved classic (even the title card calls back to the classic), everything still feels very stilted. Jon M. Chu isn’t giving the grand production that one would imagine seeing upon their entrance to a land like Oz would carry, and instead it opts for a very washed-out look that even drowns out any life that such scenery would have. This isn’t limited to the manner by which the cinematography is blocked and the lighting would even induce lens flares that overshadow the rest of the scene too. This approach is one that can be attributed to Jon M. Chu having stated that he wishes to make Oz “look real,” but the results are just very dreary.

Alas, the fact that this story is only Part One (as shown in the film’s title card and the ending reading “To be continued”), it also seems as if there’s a desire to cram in as much as possible on the screen. At the same time, you can’t help but feel like this film also feels so ridiculously padded out so that it would feel like an “epic” in every sense of the word. But when the stakes mostly stay so low, it never really feels like it can match up. Many subplots are just left hanging without going anywhere substantial, some even making less sense because it seems that Jon M. Chu is rushing through all the major beats – but there’s no excuse to do so when this film, covering only half the musical itself, is much longer than the musical itself. It all works to build up “Defying Gravity” as a showstopping musical number as it comes between Acts One and Two, but leading to that point, you can’t help but feel like there are still many pieces missing.

It’s evident that Jon M. Chu is directing this film with a lot of love to be felt for the musical itself. But in trying to conform to keeping the core of Wicked all the same for the screen, it seems that he’s only playing everything too safely to the point he kills out any sort of excitement that a movie musical should carry along. In an era where Steven Spielberg brought so much life into a second screen adaptation of West Side Story very recently, the fact that Wicked stuck with a very muted approach just seems to suck away all the magic of the fantastical land of Oz. It never comes to a point of impeding on the wondrous music all around, but it’s enough to feel like you’ll be exhausted by the time this ends – and it’s still only half the full picture.

Watch the trailer right here.

All images via Universal Pictures.

Directed by Jon M. Chu
Screenplay by Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox, from the musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman and the novel by Gregory Maguire
Produced by Marc Platt, David Stone
Starring Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum
Premiere Date: November 3, 2024
Running Time: 160 minutes