My "Wicked" Review

If you have been on the internet at all for the last two weeks, you have probably been overwhelmed with Wicked content whether it's from their wild press tour, memes, or just clips from the movie. Not only has Wicked taken over the internet, but all over stores like Starbucks and Target. I am sure Wicked's marketing budget has exceeded the GDP of several countries.

Before I get into my review, I will say I am not a MASSIVE musical theater fan. I like musicals and I've seen my fair share of them, but would not consider myself a diehard musicals fan. My favorite movie musical is Hairspray and nothing will touch my love for that movie. I saw Wicked on broadway when I was younger, but it wasn't really a core memory for me and I wasn't blown away by the story or songs.

The Review

I went into the movie with high expectations with the countless 5 star Letterboxd reviews from friends and family. With that being said, I will say I wasn't BLOWN away by the movie, but thought it was solid overall. I didn't cry during any of the scenes, but got some light chills during "Defying Gravity." I mean if you don't get light chills during "Defying Gravity" you might be a sociopath.

I've seen loads of videos of people coming out of the movie uncontrollably sobbing and I will never understand that reaction for the movie. I think we need to slow our roll a little on this being "one of the greatest movies of all time" and it getting serious Oscar consideration. I know this year is bad for Oscar's and definitely a weaker field, but let me introduce you to Anora:

Wicked doesn't even come close to this masterpiece of a movie. I highly recommend watching this one AT THE MOVIES instead of on streaming or whatever. Movie of the year. Now back to the review:

The Good:

• Both leads

  • Both Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are very good in their respective roles. Ariana's ability to do comedic acting is so underrated. She kills it everytime on SNL and just really knows how to land comedic timing and jokes. Both of their voices as well sound so perfect together and absolutely insane that they were doing most of the singing live.

• The Cameos

  • *SPOILER ALERT*

    • The cameos of the OG Wicked cast was electric. I don't think anyone in my screening under the age of 23 registered who it was or what the significance was of it, but everyone 25+ could appreciate the cameos and knew history was being made.

• "What is this Feeling?"

  • Definitely my favorite number in the movie. They legit put crack in this scene especially with the choreography. I've watched the walk with the books at least 50+ times and might have that choreography down in the next 7 days or so.

The Not so Good:

• Length

  • This movie is 2 hours and 40 minutes long and is only a PART ONE. You basically have to take out an entire afternoon to watch this movie just for it to end with a "To be continued..." The Broadway version of Wicked 's runtime is 2 hours and 45 minutes with a fifteen minute intermission.This first part of the two-part adaptation has the exact same runtime as the theatrical version. Just too long and the first 90 mins of the movie drags on at a snails pace. This part 1 is just 20 mins shorter than "Oppenheimer" which is just insane.

  
  

• Color gradient

  • Might be a hot take but I strongly disliked the color gradient of the film. Everything looked extremely washed out and aggressively backlit. A lot of people have been discussing the coloring of the movie and the director even responded to the complaints:

    
    

“I mean, there’s color all over it,” director Jon Chu stated, “I think what we wanted to do was immerse people into Oz, to make it a real place. Because if it was a fake place, if it was a dream in someone’s mind, then the real relationships and the stakes that these two girls are going through wouldn’t feel real.”

I get what he's saying, but I don't know man, the movie just looked really washed out to me and it was almost distracting.

Overall, I'm gonna give "Wicked" 3.5/5.

Solid film with some good performances, but not blown away. I will be seated for Part 2 in November 2025 for sure, however I hope they aren't doing another press tour for that.