Wicked: An Honest Opinion

I went to see Wicked three days after the premiere with a friend of mine. I was completely blind to everything about it. I hadn’t watched a single trailer, hadn’t been keeping up with the news about it since it was announced, and refused to let anyone tell me anything about it. I wanted to go in as unbiased as I could be, being a pretty big Wicked fan. It’s safe to say that I had high expectations for this movie. 

Overall, I give it four stars. 

I can’t say for sure what my complete opinion is just yet, as part two hasn’t been released, and that’s where things start to ramp up. That is to say, I really liked it.

Despite my best efforts to stay away from any sort of Wicked spoilers, I was exposed to quite a few quick soundbites from the movie musical. And they worried me. The soundbites sounded inauthentic, heavily edited, and… Well, concerning. I knew that many of the actors chose to sing live in an effort to preserve the musical aspect, but from what I had been hearing, all that was thrown out the window pretty fast. 

Luckily for me, I was blown out of the water, at least in the case of the music. It was good. Those soundbites I heard? They lied to me. The music was breathtaking in theaters. Every single song was perfect, and I could barely catch my breath for fear that I would miss something. “Defying Gravity” was amazing, as expected. “What Is This Feeling?” gave me chills. “The Wizard and I” was beautiful and heartfelt. My favorite song had to be “Dancing Through Life,” though. It always has been, ever since the first time I listened to the musical. The movie adaptation was no different, with Jonathan Bailey carrying on the energetic and wild spirit of Fiyero while singing and dancing flawlessly. 

I noticed a lot of acting choices made by every single actor involved, and almost every single one pleased me. While usually movie adaptations of anything, especially musicals, tend to frustrate me due to their lack of originality and tendencies to leave out the best parts of the original media, the Wicked movie was incredibly faithful to the musical. I was also very pleased to find that multiple plot points that were quickly skimmed over or missed entirely in the original musical were given new life in the Wicked movie. The musical itself is known for being rushed and chaotic, and I think that the adaptation was able to take these criticisms and work with them. 

Some people were not excited about the movie being split into two parts, despite the fact that both are around three hours long. After seeing the first part, I can easily say that I'm happy to wait for the second part to come out and will probably go see it in theaters the exact same way. Do I think that splitting it up was done to make the movie more digestible for casual audiences and first-time watchers? Yes. I’m glad that new people who never saw or were interested in seeing Wicked the Musical have been able to enjoy themselves through the movie. Do I also think that the movie was split into two parts in an attempt to make more money? Yes. After all, two movies to see instead of one will profit more. Instead of just going in to watch the entire Wicked movie for the price of one ticket, audiences will have to pay for tickets twice to be able to see both parts. The blatant money grab upsets me, which is partly why I think that the movie deserves four stars instead of five.

Speaking of criticism, I didn’t like one specific thing about the movie. It tried its very best to include as much as it could from the original book that the musical skipped over, and it still somehow felt rushed. Certain points, important ones, like a lot of cruelty towards the animals in Oz and the way that they were treated, were lost in the chaos of the music. Elphaba’s main motivation for the things she did was inspired by the way that her animal teachers and friends were treated by the citizens of Oz, and all those motivations that are so important to the development of her character just felt…underdeveloped. I wish that the movie tried a little harder to not only keep the magic and wonder of the musical but also to instill some of the lessons and morals into its audience that the book tried to do. 

Other than that, the movie was very entertaining. Even now, I still find myself putting on the movie soundtrack while doing homework or cleaning, and remembering the gorgeous sets and costumes still brings me joy to no end.

Safe to say, I’m excited to see what part two will bring. I hope that it can live up to the heavy expectations we’re pushing onto it.