I wasn't previously very interested in seeing "Wicked," but after hearing good word of mouth from friends, decided to see it. This film adapts the first act of the musical, which has been on Broadway now for over twenty years. It tells the story of the origins of Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Wicked Witch--how they met each other and their friendship, how Elphaba was subject to bullying and marginalization, and the effects they had on Oz. And, since this is a musical, there is of course plenty of big musical numbers. The musical numbers can be entertaining and the film provides plenty of visual spectacle, but unfortunately, the movie doesn't totally justify why it needed to split its source material into two parts. The film drags enough in the middle to feel long, and despite a strong first 40 minutes and last 40 minutes, a lot of what's in between feels like it could have been better edited. The difference between this film and something like Denis Villeneuve's "Dune" films (the first two "Dune" films cover the first and second half of the first "Dune" book) is that "Dune" is rich in complex character development and dense plotting to make two long movies uniquely engaging and narratively justify themselves from both a plot and characterization perspective, whereas the same isn't exactly the case with "Wicked."
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo do pretty well with the material, and they both can definitely sing, but the characters aren't always that compelling by the standards of "2.75 hour movie that covers only the first half of the musical." The supporting cast (such as Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, and Michelle Yeoh) give solid performances as well. For me, the musical numbers were hit or miss, with the opening "No One Mourns the Wicked" and the showstopping "Defying Gravity" were excellent, but some of the other numbers not as much so. Overall, I thought this film had plenty of entertaining moments, but it's too bad that it wasn't either tighter and/or focused on the entire musical rather than being unnecessarily split into two. 6/10.
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo do pretty well with the material, and they both can definitely sing, but the characters aren't always that compelling by the standards of "2.75 hour movie that covers only the first half of the musical." The supporting cast (such as Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, and Michelle Yeoh) give solid performances as well. For me, the musical numbers were hit or miss, with the opening "No One Mourns the Wicked" and the showstopping "Defying Gravity" were excellent, but some of the other numbers not as much so. Overall, I thought this film had plenty of entertaining moments, but it's too bad that it wasn't either tighter and/or focused on the entire musical rather than being unnecessarily split into two. 6/10.