Wicked (Part 1) | Movie REVIEW

The Oz franchise has to be the strangest unofficial franchise in cinema. The first film released in 2013. We finally got the second film now with a third following it next year. The fourth film was released back in 1939 and a fifth in 1985. Regardless of how we feel about this franchise or any of its individual entries, with Wicked having already garnered 100 million dollars in just two days, one thing is for sure. This one is gonna be popular. My name is Ren and this is my review of Wicked Part 1. Welcome back film family. Thank you for joining me. As for the billionth time in cinema history, we are taken back to the magical land of Oz. This time to witness the story of the extremely unlikely friendship between Elphaba, an ostracized but defiant girl born with green skin, and Galinda, a privileged aristocrat born to be popular. As the two young women struggle with their opposing personalities, their friendship is tested as both begin to fulfill their destinies as Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West. And Wicked is inherently a very strange movie to discuss. Not because of anything particularly that it does, but because of its connections to the history of cinema. Obviously, I have seen and adore The Wizard of Oz. I am a staunch defender of Oz the Great and Powerful, and I adore the stage show of Wicked. So I have been excited for this adaptation. It's just tricky to know what you can and can't talk about with such an adaptation that many people know from a book, from a stage show. But now the stage show has been split in two, so how much can you talk about, and how many connections to The Wizard of Oz can you discuss? And what's so strange about this film is that I was not on board for quite a while. I think Jon M. Chu directs this film with a dazzling and infectious energy. From the moment it begins, you are transported to the land of Oz in an immersive level that has never happened before. The sets, the colors, the mechanism with how Shiz University works, where the library has these rotating bookshelves, and people just climb on top, everything has such a unique flavor to it. Even the Yellow Brick Road, the Emerald City of Oz, everything about this film makes sure to immerse you in the beauty, in the magic, in the fantasy of Oz. This masterful sense of direction and infectious energy are ever more present in the sensational musical numbers. After directing In the Heights, I knew Jon M. Chu was a great choice, at least for the musical sequences, and they are fantastic. They have such vibrancy to them. You feel like you're in the midst of the choreography in each of these numbers. On top of that, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are fantastic singers, and they share beautiful chemistry, particularly when singing together in a sequence. But the story really wasn't hooking me. I was feeling nothing. It was very serviceable. It was adapting the stage show I adore beat by beat. It was competent. It was faithful. But emotionally, it just wasn't resonating until the ballroom sequence where Elphaba puts on the hat in front of everyone for the first time. I don't know what it is. I don't know what happened. But every detail, every element in this sequence is perfection. There is not one fault I can give this number. And ironically, this is about halfway through the film. And whereas you can argue that the stage musical peaks halfway through before intermission with the fine gravity, this also peaks halfway through because this is the best sequence of the film. But what I will say is that with this sequence, the film kicks it into another gear and everything after that resonates. The story, the characters, the relationships, the music gets better, the visual gets better, the writing in general gets better. Wicked completely transforms once Galinda... I'm not gonna call her Galinda. Galinda. It should never have been Galinda. That's a stupid and unnecessary change. Galinda and Elphaba come together. That's when the movie truly begins. And I went from, this is good, this is okay, into this is really, really good. The musical numbers are where you come for. The musical numbers are, at the end of the day, what you want to stay for. And they peak. They offer a gorgeous, emotionally resonant climax. And speaking of emotion, Cynthia Erivo is playing two hours and 40 minutes of pure, sheer vulnerability. And what I also love is that Wicked is inherently a story about goodness and about how goodness is, number one, but also how it's the right path to go. It's with acts of goodness and kindness that you see people being happy and people growing and the story growing. And especially these days, there are not many movies that share that philosophy. And Wicked inherently having a philosophy of goodness and kindness being the correct way of life is immensely refreshing. Look, I don't know that this film gets any Oscar nominations besides technical categories such as sound, such as original song, even though it has no original songs, editing, cinematography. I don't know that any of the performers get acting nominations, but if anyone deserves it, it's Cynthia Erivo. Even before that sequence I told you about in the ballroom, Ariana Grande, again, beautiful singer, is doing the part, is speaking Galinda's lines, and she has the funniest lines in the film, obviously. Galinda is a hilarious character. The complete lack of self-awareness, the way she sees goodness as a performative art to display in front of others. Grande plays Galinda with such earnestness that while she's a terrible person, she is absolutely hilarious in this role, from obviously the line she speaks to the way she moves her body and she pumps herself around to be noticed by others. What I did feel, again, before that sequence where everything after that just clicks, she was very dead-eyed. For someone with such big, bulging, expressive, gorgeous eyes, she felt very dead-eyed in this film, and every other character feels slightly underdeveloped despite this half of the story. And everyone else, really, from Michelle Yeoh to Jeff Goldblum to Peter Dinklage to Jonathan Bailey, everyone has their presence felt, but they feel severely underdeveloped despite the film running at the entirety of the runtime of the stage show, it's only telling half the story. And I will tip my hat because the filmmakers managed to make this half of the story feel like one story in and of itself, even though it has a to-be-continued by the end, which apparently has surprised a lot of people, even though the film starts with Wicked Part 1. And with mentioning those names, I need to give a particular shout-out to Jonathan Bailey, who, full disclosure, I'm not familiar with at all, and this guy has a magnetic screen presence. The way he dances, the way he sings, the chemistry he has with Erivo. Not so much Ariana Grande, unfortunately. But we don't get enough of this guy with either of our main characters. We get enough of that relationship once it begins forming and flourishing and growing and evolving. But this guy needed to be in the movie more, especially given, without spoiling anything, how big of a character he is for this story. And that's what's so frustrating about Wicked. For every scene that slows everything down and feels more intimate and personal is followed by a scene with exuberance and extravagance and a fantastic musical number, but also the pacing fuels off when going from one sequence to the next. So it's a film that elongates its runtime for this half of the story. And again, they do a great job of making it feel like one story. It's also a story that is a lot about animals, and it's a lot about protecting animals and defending animals from humans. And I'm always gonna be a sucker for that. The mix of all these elements from Oz and the history of cinema and Technicolor and musicals and grandiosity, and then you also have a story about animals. It just has all these elements that resonate with me on top of ultimately being a story about goodness and kindness being the way and how that will be exploited by the world. There's a lot going for this film that I'm always going to connect with. You feel the runtime, not necessarily that it is too long. I think this story fits a two hour and 40 minute runtime, but because there is so much more time to expand on the world and on the characters and on the relationships, little is done with that outside Glinda and Elphaba. Those issues are still present all through the film. It's just that everything else stops being good and gets to really, really great. It is a classic musical in every way that embraces the pageantry, the pomp and circumstance, the spectacle, the emotion, the complete and utter commitment to being theatrical and fantastical and unashamed about it, which beautifully contrasts the marketing of this film, which seems to want to hide the fact that it is a musical, even though it's based on a book from the 90s and the musical has been running for 21 years at this point on Broadway and over here on the West End in London. Just strange decisions that seem to not hurt the movie at all because it has already made a hundred million dollars. So it's going to end the weekend on a very, very high note. With those topics out of the way, a few questions remain. Number one, is Wicked Part One a good adaptation? No, I would say it's a great adaptation. Its biggest faults and issues emerge from how faithful and loyal it is to the original stage show slash book. There is really not a lot that it changes, if anything, maybe a cameo here and there with plenty of cameos and Easter eggs for fans of the book and fans of the stage show, some visuals, some audio ones, some a mix of the two. Very good winks and nods. I bet you, like me, everyone at the same exact moment is going like the Leonardo DiCaprio meme pointing at the screen. Can you watch Wicked without knowing about Oz, without having ever seen anything else from The Wizard of Oz? Number one, what is wrong with you that you have not seen The Wizard of Oz yet? Number two, yes, you can. You will be spoiled about certain elements of The Wizard of Oz specifically, but it doesn't attach itself to any other story from Oz or any other interpretation of Oz. And that is why it's working so well, because it's not gatekeeping anything. As much as people like to pretend otherwise, most people really love musicals. That's why they always do really well, especially when released around this time of year. And at this point, Oz is a staple of cinema. It has been since 1939. No matter what studio, what story, original, or an adaptation of something, it feels like a fully formed world that you get to know so much more about with Wicked. And there's just something so magical about that and how it ties back to years and years and years of cinematic history. But those are just my thoughts on Wicked Part 1. It's time for you to start the conversation down there in the comments below. Let me know your favorite musical sequence, your favorite character, what you most want to see in Part 2, anything and everything. Start the conversation down there in the comments. If you're enjoying this review, there's many more like it right up here. And if you want to talk more movies and TV with me, this is the place to be. Consider clicking that subscribe button and you won't miss any future conversations on your favorite movies and TV. Wicked Part 1 is a dazzling cinematic achievement that soars thanks to its breathtaking visuals, show-stopping musical numbers, and its undeniable charm. While the film's biggest fault is its fealty to its source material, Arrivo as the film's beating heart and Chew's grandiose, euphoric direction are the magic that allow it to defy gravity. I'm giving Wicked Part 1 a B+. Thank you so much for watching, film family. Remember to start the conversation about Wicked Part 1 in the comments below and what are you most excited to see in Part 2. Anything and everything down there and I'll be back with more videos very soon. So until the next one, love each other and love the movies.