Yahoo Lifestyle 'Wicked' Leaves 'Part Two' With Impossibly Large Shoes To Fill: Review
"Barbenheimer" will remain one of the most important pop-culture moments of the decade. What began as the accidental scheduling of Warner Bros. Pictures' Barbie and Universal Pictures' Oppenheimer for July 21, 2023, quickly spun out into a global phenomenon thanks largely to "Film Twitter." Due to the "Barbenheimer" branding, audiences felt compelled to see not one, but both films, bolstering their box office returns and setting the stage for a collective 21 Oscar nominations.
Since "Barbenheimer," movie lovers have anxiously awaited a follow-up double feature with the same cache. (Sorry, "Saw Patrol" and "The Ballad of Songbirds and Trolls.") When Wicked moved its release date five days earlier to share Nov. 22, 2024 with Gladiator II, eager fans christened the twofer "Glicked." Supposedly, this decision by Universal was made to avoid Wicked competing with Moana 2, but many have wondered if the "boy movie"/"girl movie" combo wasn't a play to combine box office numbers in the same way "Barbenheimer" did.
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With premieres and early screenings for both underway, it seems likely that Wicked will win at the box office, and having seen both films, I can say wholeheartedly that Wicked is also the better movie. Wicked, or Wicked: Part I as the film's title card dubs it, is the theatrical rendering of Act I of the 2003 Broadway show (which is based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel, which is itself an unofficial prequel to the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel). Leading up to Part I's release, the choice to split a 2.5-hour-long musical into two films, with the first being 2.5-hours-long itself, seemed like a dubious choice. Why truncate the story? Why add a whole extra hour to Act I? How could that be without so much as the addition of a credits song (a glaring mistake imho)? From the "Glicked" date to the two parts, the whole setup seemed like a cash grab.
Cash grab or not, Wicked is a stunning piece of filmmaking that will go down in history alongside the likes of Chicago, West Side Story and the original Wizard of Oz as one of the best movie musicals ever crafted. It defies expectations (and gravity, okay I'm sorry for that), with exceptional pacing, jaw-dropping musical numbers and some of the best costume and production design work in recent memory. Jon M. Chu's directing of the film feels pitch perfect, something that won't surprise fans of his 2021 adaptation of In the Heights, and he magically adds an hour to the Act I runtime without slowing the movie's propulsion a bit.
For those of you who weren't theater kids in the 2000s, Act I of Wicked, and therefore Wicked: Part I, follows the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West, with her given name, Elphaba Thropp, finally revealed. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) struggles to fit in with other Ozians and sticks out when sent to Shiz University for both her green skin and fledgling magical powers. Also attending Shiz are her wheelchair-bound sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode), the doofy Munchkin Boq (the Spongebob musical's Ethan Slater) and, of course, the self-centered younger version of Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, Galinda (emphasis on the "ga"), played by Ariana Grande.
Galinda and Elphaba are paired as roommates, which leads to plenty of friction (and loathing) given that Galinda is envious of Elphaba's powers and her private tutelage under Headmistress of Shiz, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). A love triangle with Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) and a pre-World War II-esque plot involving the discrimination of talking animals like their professor Doctor Dillamond (voiced by Peter Dinklage) only complicate matters further. The enemies become "best friends" only to have that relationship tested when in the film's final moments the pair realize that the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) and Morrible are behind the ghettoization of the talking animals. This leads to Elphaba's singing of "Defying Gravity" and the beginning of her Act II battle with the Wizard, while Galinda (or just "Glinda" as she is known by then due to some performative activism) is more conflicted and stays behind. Part I, like Act I of the musical, ends on the goosebump-inducing belting of "Defying Gravity," setting up a year-long intermission before Part II tackles Act II next November.
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There's barely a nit to pick in all of Part I. The casting of Erivo and Grande, which seemed a bit controversial at first, turned out to be divine. Erivo's awkwardness (which was previously on display in The Outsider) contrasts perfectly with Grande's vapid, yet endearing charisma. Both actor CAN SING, but their facial expressions and mannerism work reinforce why they were cast. The scene cementing their friendship at the Ozdust Ballroom is a prime example of their non-singing prowess, and Grande's more showy performance almost guarantees her an Oscar nomination ("toss toss"). Bailey's unbridled flirtatiousness is unleashed to sublime effect as Fiyero, and Yeoh's latent menace is deftly calibrated.
Chu also deserves a heaping portion of praise for his directing, especially of the musical numbers. From something more introspective like "The Wizard and I" to the choreography-heavy "One Short Day," he creates distinct, magical moments with each song. The split-screen use in "What Is This Feeling?", the She's All That dance-off at the Ozdust and even the choreography involved in Elphaba's mother drinking the potion at the film's start are all a testament to his ability. When the immaculate production design syncs up with his directing and choreography, as it does in the show-stopping "Dancing Through Life" spinning-bookshelves number, viewers are agog. Some well-placed cameos and a new post-election relevance to the talking-animal subplot are the icing on the cake.
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While Wicked deftly overtakes the occasionally clunky Gladiator II, it perhaps has set a trap for itself in the process. Part I is so exceptional that it leaves impossibly large ruby slippers for Part II to fill. Act II of the musical is shorter. It's more depressing. It's got fewer songs and other than "No Good Deed" and "For Good" is almost completely devoid of bangers. While Stephen Schwartz has written two new songs for Part II, the sequel will require the addition of plenty of new material (perhaps pulled from Maguire's novel or the original Wizard of Oz) to fill out the runtime. It seems almost certain that Part II will disappoint after the high highs of Part I.
But perhaps that's putting the ox before the cart a bit, and if Part I has proven anything, it's that Chu and co. are prepared to surpass expectations. Following in a long line of legendary adaptations, the Wicked film is sure to remain popular long after it has left theaters. If on your ride home you're asking yourself "what is this feeling?" The answer is: it's history being made.
Grade: A
