'Wicked' It's Not Easy Being Green and Bloated
There's an irony that comes with this website's name. It's called "You'll Probably Agree." Now, does that mean you'll actually agree with everything I write or say? No. Because art is subjective. What one person may consider brilliant, another may consider a hack job. While at my screening of yesterday's preview for Wicked, I couldn't help but shake the feeling that I was the one curmudgeon film critic during the movie who was not feeling the magic everyone was bringing to the screen. Is there something wrong with me? Yes, in more ways than you can imagine. But it doesn't negate the fact that I have a right to my opinion just as much as you have yours. Having said let's get started on why you probably won't agree with me.
Wicked wastes no time getting the story started. The opening begins with everyone celebrating the Wicked of the Witch of the West's death. Nobody is singing, "Ding, dong, the witch is dead," but something close to that tune. As Emerald City is overcome with joy over the death of another person, the Good Witch of the North, AKA Glinda (Ariana Grande), is confronted by an onlooker in the cheery crowd, asking, really more like demanding an answer if the Good Witch was once a friend to the Wicked Witch. Reluctantly, Glinda (pronounced Ga-Linda ) acknowledges they were indeed once acquaintances, playing down the fact that they were best friends for life.
We then flashback to the past when Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) was born. To quote Kermit the Frog, "It's not easy being green." From the moment she was born Elphaba is rejected by her own parents due to the color of her skin. Social commentary, anyone? There's even a line from someone that says, "I don't see color." We've all had that politically correct friend who spews out that nonsense. Probably because I once said it and deservedly got called out. Elphaba spends most of her life caring for her wheelchair-bound sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode), who, unlike Elphaba, didn't come out green. To finally have an opportunity to get ahead in life, Nessarose is enrolled at (what sounds like Snoop Dog came up with the name) Shiz University. A special school that teaches young folks how to perform magic. However, it soon turns out that it's Elphaba who has the powers the university is looking for. Not her sister.
Elphaba is assigned to be roommates with Glinda. They initially don't get along, as Glinda has a similar distaste for green folks as the rest of Oz. Over time, however, their relationship blossoms into an unexpected friendship that will help shape the course of the classic Wizard of Oz we all know. I'll admit I'm not a die-hard Oz fan. It's not that I don't like it; it just never held that nostalgic childhood torch for me the way it did with millions of others. Wicked does nothing to change my perception.
Wicked is a film with a lot of setup for a payoff that's supposed to happen in Part 2 of an already close to three-hour musical. You couldn't have just paid off in this film? I'm going to take a guess and presume the Broadway play the movie is adapted from isn't six hours. Maybe the book is a six-hour read (or more), but does the movie have to be that long? The film feels like it's taking a razer-thin plot and stretching it out so Universal can score box office returns on a two-picture deal. It's like what happened with Peter Jackson in The Hobbit, where one short book is converted to an epic trilogy that doesn't need to be a trilogy, let alone two parts.
A huge chunk of Wicked are song and dance numbers that, although admittedly dazzling, was a great, big bore for me. I understand if you're a fan of the musical, you might not mind the movie's extended length as they leave hardly anything on the cutting room floor. If you're not a fan of musicals like me, you'll be counting the minutes until the movie ends. One thing that turns me off from the musical genre is how it takes basic plot points and stretches them out into elongated songs that take up more length than substance.
That said, the tunes to this film are catchy, but if you'd like me to recite a piece, I can't. Not because they're not memorable but because my memory is terrible. If I were a critic in the pre-internet days, I'd be doomed, as IMDB wouldn't be there to help me when trying to look up a cast member's name. From my research, the Wicked books are densely filled with content that may not be appropriate for children. Apparently, Elphaba is a rape baby? That's understandably not part of this story. The movie, however, is very kid-friendly. Even if the books are long, this movie really doesn't need to be a nearly three-hour epic servicing a two-part story. At a certain point, I'm begging for mercy for the singing to stop so the movie would end already. By trimming some of the more adult content, the movie gives us a very simple story that's stretched wider than a gymnast doing the splits.
There's just not a lot of meat to this story that warrants a length of 2 hours and 40 minutes. Some of the stuff they put in the movie is engaging. Why Elphaba becomes the Witch we all love to hate is a legitimate one where she embraces love over bigotry. It makes the Wicked Witch of the West an antihero more than a villain. In fact, she's morally the least corrupt person in the film. I find that angle to be interesting yet overplayed. The misunderstood protagonist, whose values are measured by their actions and unfortunate circumstances, has been done almost to death. Whether it's Todd Phillip's rendition of Joker or Ryan Reynold's stab at Deadpool, the protagonist is misunderstood, leading them to do things that define them as "bad" when they're not really all that terrible after all.
As a musical, Wicked has some fantastic numbers topped with incredible production design, decent visual effects, and a strong lead in its performances from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Let me tell you, Cynthia Erivo can belt out some notes many wishes (present company included) they could have. The supporting cast isn't half bad either, with Michelle Yeoh making an appearance as one of the heads of Shiz and Jeff Goldblum playing a wonderfully quirky Oz.
There are a lot of elements that work as individual scenes, but as an overall picture, Wicked Part 1 is an exhausting sit. Obviously, I'm not the right crowd for this movie. Every fan attending the press screening decked out in full witch gear like it's Halloween seemed to love every frame of the flick. I wish I could have shared their enthusiasm, let alone most critics who probably dug this flick. For me, I want to see Elphaba's turn to evil in this film. Not the next one. If there's one thing I learned from this movie, it is the hypocrisy of others, and the immoral things they'll do just for power and attention are astounding. If only this film could have paid a little more attention to making it one concise narrative rather than an unnecessary six-hour epic, I would be more invested in Elphaba's transition to wickedness.
WIcked releases in theaters nationwide this Friday.
