Wicked

The advertising for this movie had gone on for so long and had been so all-consuming that I walked into the theater very jaded and cynical. I walked out grinning and humming.

This review is spoiler free!

The casting is, if you'll allow the indulgent phrasing, pitch perfect from top to bottom. I mean, can you imagine a better Wizard than Jeff Goldblum? He has such a mischievous, impishness to him that you can't help but be taken in by it. Michelle Yeoh was as magnetic and as commanding of the screen as she always is.

And, of course, we have our leads. Jonathan Bailey really didn't have that much screen time, but he was very charming when we did see him, and was incredibly believable as a swoon-worthy prince. But Wicked could only ever be as good as its Glinda and Elphaba.

Oh, and they were great. Ariana Grande surprised me with just how good she was. She had so many silent, subtle moments where her true emotions showed on her face before she had to plaster a smile back on. She had a lot of the silly, comedic bits and I really appreciated these bits of depth.

I had never heard of Cynthia Erivo before Wicked, but she really impressed me as well. I'm always a fan of characters hiding vulnerability behind snark, and that fits Elphaba exactly. Watching the relationship between the pair go from complete and utter loathing to true friendship makes for a lovely emotional core.

Both women sound great. (All of the cast did.) They both managed to do something that is incredibly difficult: make the fact that the characters spontaneously burst into song feel natural. I've been humming a few songs since I left the theatre, and I really can't wait to hear their versions of Act 2 songs.

Yeah, about that. This is only the first act, which was not very well advertised. At all. And I was admittedly very disappointed when Part 1 showed up during the opening titles simply because "No Good Deed" is my favorite song in the musical. Still, breaking up the movie into two parts kind of makes sense. There's a very natural break for intermission, and the end of Act 1 is iconic and a very strong ending.

However, despite only being half the story, Wicked is still two hours and forty minutes long. This is a full hour longer than the first act of the musical. It really did not need to be this long. There are no new songs. They did not add any new depth to the characters, their relationships, or the world that they live in. They just took existing scenes and dragged them out longer.

That being said, it still didn't feel like a two hours and forty minutes long movie. The pacing was very good for about 90% of it. I was fully swept away in it all. Oz was absolutely gorgeous. It was magical. It gave me the same sense of wonder that I felt when Dorothy landed and stepped out into a technicolor world for the first time. The Emerald City in particular was magnificent.

Now, I saw the musical on Broadway. I went with someone who had not seen the musical. She liked the movie more than I did. My issue was that I kept comparing the two versions in my head. Especially towards the end, the movie had significantly choppier pacing. "Defying Gravity" is such a powerful song, but they kept introducing pauses between verses and it annoyed me. I fully acknowledge that this is a very Me issue, though.

I also was not enthralled with Glinda's outfits. Something about the colors or the saturation of colors just didn't work and made her look very washed out. I wanted brighter pink! Elphaba looked great. The green skin looks natural, and I liked how her outfits slowly became more fashionable as the movie went on. But Glinda's needed something more to them.

These are minor quibbles, though. I had a wonderful time, and I have a feeling that it will make an even better doubleheader next year. Definitely try and catch this in theaters surrounded by fellow fans if you can. Part of the magic comes with being able to share in everything alongside the audience.

Random Thoughts

There is a pair of cameos towards the end of the movie. I absolutely loved them and how they were handled.

Marissa Bode, who plays Nessarose, is the first wheelchair user to play the part.

Flying monkeys continue to be horrifying.

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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.

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