The Oscar Race Review: "Wicked"

This Shrek prequel sure is good

You guys know that tweet about Surf Dracula?

Yeah.

Wicked may have been the first “new” musical I was ever aware of as a child. I had a general grasp of what it meant for something to be on Broadway, but I guess I had gotten it in my head that they didn’t really make new musicals anymore. The general pop culture explosion around Wicked was powerful enough to burst that bubble of ignorance around me.

A different take on The Wizard of Oz [5/5] makes sense. The original movie and its source material, L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, promise such a rich world thanks to its creative characters and dazzling use of color. The Wizard of Oz was the first movie to ever be shot in technicolor nearly a century ago, and the studio worked everyone involved nearly to death in order to make everyone know how valuable that was. The legends around the torturous making of that movie haven’t slowed its immense legacy one iota, but it makes for an interesting read if you’re curious. Here’s a Vanity Fair writeup from 2019 if you’re unfamiliar.

Wicked avoided just treading familiar ground though. It repaints the land of Oz as a colonialist nightmare, its citizens beholden in blissful ignorance to the tyranny that surrounds them and threatens them more than any green-skinned sorceress ever could. The villainous Wicked Witch of the West had already lived a life as one of fiction’s most iconic villains by the time Wicked tore it up on the stage. Flipping her into a sympathetic anti-hero breathed new life into both the newly dubbed Elphaba and Glinda the good witch, now reimagined as a shallow popularity seeker. The dynamic between these rivals-turned-friends-turned-rivals is admittedly a bit Hot Topic core, but the original Wicked book’s release in 1995 puts it ahead of other mall emo considerers of the prep/goth binary like My Chemical Romance.

The legacy of Wicked as one of the great musicals of the 21st century has been set for two decades at this point, so why the massive effort to adapt the story to screen? After all, I’ve been hearing reports about the impending movie version of Wicked since about the same time I was aware what Wicked was. As I sat through the trailers ahead of watching this long-gestating Part One of Jon M. Chu’s vision of Oz, I was reminded of the truth of cinematic perception when I saw a trailer for the new live action remake of How To Train Your Dragon.

I haven’t seen the original Dreamworks animated film, but I know it’s highly regarded and still looks great despite first premiering 15 years ago. Why do the studios feel the need adapt animated features like HTDYD or acclaimed stage musicals like Wicked to serious big budget live action? Simply put, that format is, in their eyes, inherently more prestigious. Obviously, any animated movie or stage show was made as a compromise because it couldn’t get produced as a live action film. Why else would you make something in those mediums?

This mindset infuriates me. Both Spiderverse movies are some of the best films I’ve ever seen, animated or not [both are 5/5, but Across the Spiderverse is marginally better], and Hamilton has sent shockwaves through the entertainment world without the need for being made for the big screen. These wouldn’t be made better by looking more like the MCU or skipping the stage altogether. The medium of live action film is great, but it isn’t inherently better than the alternatives.

This is ultimately my biggest gripe with the movie version of Wicked, a move I actually did quite like. The copious amounts of CGI used for the movie’s effects ultimately are less impressive than anything that was accomplished for live productions of the original show. I never saw Wicked on Broadway but did catch it on the West End when I was in London for a school trip. On stage, the magic had to be accomplished with costuming, puppetry, wirework, literal smoke and mirrors, and so many other techniques that I’m not even aware of that they might as well be magic. In the movie, what we get instead is some occasionally muddy CGI, dampening the overall visual effect despite the big screen.

The “Defying Gravity” scene which ends this movie and marks the end of the first half of the live show is the perfect example. The narrative power of Elphaba rejecting the Wizard’s society and simultaneously fully grasping her powers is narratively powerful in the movie; this song is the clear inspiration for “Let It Go” from Frozen, right down to being originally performed by Idina Menzel. But where the show is mind-blowing for the ability to make a woman fly right in front of the audience, the movie is just another big budget effects feature where someone flies around. I can watch 10,000 movies where a character flies through the air, and the effect will never look as good as seeing it done as a stage effect.

The CG itself is mostly fine, but towards the end of this two and a half hour runtime I was about ready swear off computer graphics forever for sheer volume of rendered models and textures. I was surprised I felt this way, because I saw so many behind the scenes shots of the practical sets they built for the film’s many locations. The problem is that they color graded everything to dull the colors and blend the sets into the CGI better. Despite The Wizard of Oz being one of the most bright and colorful movies of all time, Wicked feels shockingly monotone at times.

Maybe it’s an intentional choice to reflect the darker nature of this story compared to the original, but based on what I saw of the sets before the post-processing and Hollywood’s recent trend of turning everything into brown and grey sludge, I’m leaning towards this not being a storytelling decision.

I’m griping a lot, but all of my issues with Wicked come from this specific adaptation and not necessarily with the bones of the musical itself. The story is a compelling take on the established world of Oz, and its themes of scapegoating as a tactic of autocrats has sadly only gotten more relevant in the years since the musical first premiered. Despite the source material dating back to the ‘90s, Wicked remains tuned to both our world and Oz.

Unlike Emilia Pérez, this show has plenty of good songs. This first half of the story contains all of the ones that I, a filthy theater casual, recognize off the top of my head like “Popular,” “The Wizard and I,” and “Defying Gravity.” These songs and others aren’t sonically updated too much from their early 2000s roots. There are lots of glitzy synths and pseudo-rock drums propelling these numbers, with strings and guitars adding texture rather than driving too much of the melody. It’s honestly a throwback at this point, and after the nightmare that was Emilia Pérez, it was so thrilling to experience a musical that actually loved being a musical that I wanted to cry in my theater seat.

Despite the excessive CGI and color grading, you can tell that Wicked has been adapted by a cast and crew of insane theater nerds. Chu’s past work includes a couple of the Step Up movies and the film adaptation of In the Heights, so he knows how to shoot the hell out of some song and dance numbers. The cast is full of supremely talented performers, most famously Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, but also that guy from the Spongebob musical who left his wife for Grande after the two hit it off on set. My former-theater-kid wife assures me that this incestuous relationship drama behind the scenes of the show is the most theater-accurate part of Wicked.

I would never leave my wife for Ariana Grande, but she does a shockingly good job here. I’ve known her more as a generational talent for her incredible vocals in her pop career, so when she flawlessly hit every note in songs like “No One Mourns the Wicked” I was impressed but not surprised. What did shock me was her acting ability. She nails the mean-girl ditziness of Glinda so well you’d swear she was just playing herself (or a twist on her public persona at least). More than that, she’s hilarious in this movie. Almost every time she had a line, her delivery made me laugh out loud, to the point where I was a bit disappointed whenever she wasn’t onscreen.

I’ve been a fan of Cynthia Erivo since 2018’s Bad Times at the El Royale [3.5/5], and am thrilled that she’s poised to blow up in a big way thanks to the success of Wicked and her role as Elphaba. Like Grande, she’s also classically trained as both actress and vocalist, but historically I’ve been more familiar with her dramatic work in movies like Widows [3.5/5] than anything she’s done vocally.

Well guess what, past Will: Erivo is a powerhouse singer who not only keeps up with Grande on the songs, she absolutely steals the show whenever she gets a number of her own. Her performances of “The Wizard and I” and “Defying Gravity” sent goosebumps down my arms, even if they were just her studio recordings over the filmed scene.

Between the songs, she’s doing a lot more of the heavy dramatic lifting between the twin leads, and she sells so much of the shifting emotion of Elphaba as she seeks then ultimately rejects the acceptance of those around her. All that green face paint can’t hide Erivo’s subtle facial movements and heartache, and we’re better off for it.

The supporting cast is mostly pretty good. I loved Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero; his rick jock energy belied a sweetness and surprising thoughtfulness that the actor portrayed wonderfully. Jeff Goldblum shows up near the end as the Wizard of Oz and thankfully they don’t ask him to sing much. He’s doing the same kooky Goldblum performance here that he’s been doing for the past decade or so, but it actually fits the character here so I’m fine with it.

Michelle Yeoh, who’s a trained dancer but not a singer, unfortunately sticks out a bit as a major character with no basically no musical involvement because her voice wasn’t up to snuff. Yeoh is a brilliant actress who can famously handle physical roles (Everything, Everywhere, All At Once [5/5]was only a couple of years ago and features some banger fight scenes from her), so it was a bit disappointing that she was here strictly to be a wise teacher.¹

I do have some qualms with Wicked that carry over to both the original musical and this adaptation. It’s introduction of a grave prophecy and extremely important spellbook that’s evidently the cornerstone of Oz society comes out of nowhere right at the end, which I hated. You’d think if these story elements were so important, they’d have been weaved into the narrative earlier.

There’s also the problem of overexplaining stuff from The Wizard of Oz. Some things, like the reveal of how the flying monkeys got their wings, are cool (though the scene was more impressive in the live show). Other times, it comes across as annoyingly quirky. Absolutely zero people were demanding an explanation for why the bricks on that road were yellow. And yet Wicked decided it needed to dedicate far too much time to answering unasked questions like that and others.

Despite all of these gripes, I enjoyed Wicked. Despite the diminished visuals, it was still such a feast for the eyes that I’m glad I caught it on the big screen. Its central performances are absolutely dynamite and its songs are as good as they’ve been for the past 20 years. The timing of its release has made its narrative surprisingly potent, but this is a musical deeply steeped in the classic definition of that medium. If you don’t enjoy watching people sing out their emotions to narrative effect on principle, I can’t imagine this will be the show to sway you.

This absolutely does not replace the original stage production at all; if you get a chance to see Wicked on Broadway or some equivalent environment, I highly recommend it. Once this movie’s follow-up is released, the cinematic Wicked experience promises to take 5 hours of your time to get the whole story. I can’t imagine I’ll ever be in a position where I’ll want to watch both parts back to back, but maybe it’ll make for a fun day of playing a drinking game with friends.

Does it have a chance at winning the Best Picture Oscar this year? It’s totally possible. We’ve been in a movie musical movement for a couple of years now, with hits like Wonka [3.5/5] and the new version of Mean Girls scoring big box office wins and decent reviews as well. The Academy may wish to coronate this throwback to the classic era of the movie musical by awarding the most high profile of them all the top prize of the show. That said, they might also give Best Picture to Emilia Pérez for the same reason. Honestly, if the role of Wicked in this year’s Best Picture race is to split the vote and prevent the other, far worse musical in contention from winning, I’ll call that a win for everybody.

Wicked is a slick, big-budget adaptation of a great stage show that probably doesn’t need to exist, but it’s probably the best version of itself that it could possibly be. At this point, I’d be a bit disappointed if it won Best Picture, since I can think of at least three movies I liked better than it that are also nominated, but I wouldn’t be all that irate if it did get the big award at the end of the night. Maybe the fact that I don’t feel all that strongly about it in hindsight is a bad sign for its quality, but I trust my instincts here. Wicked is a good, occasionally great, time at the movies.

Rating: 4/5

1. This is the second time I’ve watched a movie about a magical school and been surprised to learn that Michelle Yeoh plays a teacher there. The School for Good and Evil [2/5] is definitely worse than Wicked though