Wicked: A Bombastic Delight
Wicked Is A Fantastic Movie With Incredible Songs
Wicked (part one) is a lush, spectacular, wonderful experience of a movie. It captures the delightful energy of live theater and has so many incredible scenes. I’ve had several of its songs stuck in my head since I watched it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Like, I have so few complaints about Wicked as a movie that it’s actually a little difficult to review it. I haven’t seen the stage musical or read the book(s), so maybe there’s some adaptational thing that I don’t know about—much like my recent review of Dune—but if either other version is somehow better, then I need to find a way to experience it sometime. Every moment of this story is packed with so much engaging social commentary, fun allusions to the original Wizard of Oz, or is just going for the most stunning moments it can achieve.
So Much Time And Work Went Into Making Wicked
And any one of those things would’ve worked well enough for a story—but it’s how it all operates together that really elevates Wicked. It takes it from a simple reimagining of The Wizard of Oz to my preferred version of this “franchise” through effective worldbuilding. Everything informs everything else in mostly consistent ways. The “Wicked Witch” has green skin because of a backstory involving her mother’s infidelity and her father’s cruelty that then affects her entire childhood and relationship with other people. Her connection to the Wizard of Oz (the character, not the film title) becomes a complex web of political scheming and an exploration of systemic bigotry. The moments between Glinda and Elphaba become an increasingly emotional look at friendship, privilege, and power.
But Wicked is also somehow not grimdark. There’s never a moment where it seemed “edgy.” It remains and knows it’s a musical full of ballads and bouncy music. This world still feels like a fairytale, where magic is common enough. The visuals especially get across this idea. I was obsessed with the hallways, the towers, and the architecture of so many rooms and locations. I loved the giant metallic bowls at the mess hall. There’s enough detail here that I could imagine visiting this school for a day.
The Set Design And Props Are Absolutely Amazing
And this leads to such an impressive balance of tone setting that the song breaks seem almost diegetic. Everyone singing with Glinda just feels like something that’s actually happening. The various goofy, almost slapstick dances just get across more of the character’s personalities. And then, when Wicked wants to, it uses those songs to deliver palpable, impactful, emotional moments. Though “Defying Gravity” gave me chills, the honestly most effective moment in the whole movie for me was the “slow dance” scene. Wicked speed runs the generic high-school love triangle with a prom climax within its runtime, but it completely goes another way from that template with that dance between Glinda and Elphaba. So much emotion with so few words. So much storytelling in those moments. I can’t believe that scene works as well as it does.
And now would be the time to come in with my criticisms. For movies I enjoy, I like to put them after the praise so that it doesn’t feel like I’m softening blows with compliments. But I don’t have strong critiques for Wicked. There’s no condemnation coming.The story flows great. The acting is great. The singing and dancing are wonderful. Though I cannot say for absolutely certain, as I don’t have the personal experience to be sure, even the social commentary seemed handled better than most media. Wicked does what I think Wednesday was trying to do, but actually pulls it off much better. Wicked manages to talk about bigotry of many types through fantasy metaphors without diluting their seriousness. It includes a lot of representation, including representation I don’t see as often in cinema, both in main and background characters. It touches on activism and power imbalance and abuse in both obvious and subtle ways. I would happily spend hours hearing people unpack all the meaning jammed into this film. It’s a movie written with care and tact and thoughtfulness. I’m so glad there’s another part coming because I want more of this creative team. More of this world. I really liked Wicked. I really enjoyed it.
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