Review of Wicked Part One, directed by Jon M. Chu

For those of you who have never set foot virtually into this space, welcome! This is my blog, which serves as an online diary and digital archive of everything I’ve watched, read, and experienced in the past few years. Recently, it has become a source of income for me, and a crux as I faced unexpected unemployment after an opportunity I was told I had fell through. Feel free to click around if you liked this post.

This is another one of those blog posts where I’m revisiting movies I watched a while ago. I have a huge backlog of blog posts to get through these days, hence the need to space out these posts. It’s a lot of work! Today’s post isn’t a backlog, although I did procrastinate on seeing Wicked.

My fun Wicked origin story is that in the seventh grade, I listened to the musical soundtrack for the first time and decided I wanted to be an actor and writer. I went to an arts high school for writing, and kind of sidelined the theatre world until college, when I ended up working at an NYC theater and never left (or at least at the time of writing this).

So Wicked and I go way back. I know all of the songs, the plot, everything. It was seventh grade me’s dream show to see, and although I ironically partially do theater reviews on this blog and actively go to Broadway, I still have not seen the show on stage. It’s just so expensive and I don’t live in New York!

My mother, sister, and I decided to see the movie after Christmas day though at our local AMC Theater. We were going to be some of the last to see the movie for sure, but it was surprising to see how many people were at the theater and probably had not seen it either.

I don’t want to ramble too much in the introduction of this blog post, so let’s get into the review! I don’t want to bore you with the more minor details of how we got here.

The story of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, and how she became friends with Glinda.

For those familiar with the stage musical, the world of the movie expands a bit. I haven’t read the book version of all of this, as I heard some things from others that make me iffy about reading it, but I am familiar with the musical.

But we begin with the number “No One Mourns the Wicked,” right after Elphaba is killed, and see how the townspeople rejoice in her death and even burn a massive witch statue.

As all of this is happening, Glinda rejoices as well, but is obviously more reserved and sad about what has happened as well. She narrates the birth of Elphaba, how her mother cheated with another man (keep this plot point in mind for Part Two), and how her father, the mayor, didn’t want Elphaba.

Then one of the townsfolk asks if it’s true that Glinda and Elphaba were friends, to which she says they knew each other once.

We then move into the past, when Glinda, then known as Galinda, is dropped off at Shiz University. She wants to study with Madame Morrible and became a sorceress too, but immediately is turned off when she spots Elphaba’s green skin in behind her. Elphaba came only to drop her disabled sister Nessarose off, but when she’s asked by her father to watch over her for a bit, she exposes her magic talent.

Madame Morrible, who Glinda tried to kiss up to, sees this and has Elphaba enrolls. Glinda accidentally volunteers to be her roommate, and the two clash. Everyone in school loves Glinda and hates Elphaba, so it helps her out when she goes on her little grudge against Elphaba.

However, Elphaba does befriend the goat professor Dr. Dillamond, who teaches history, and is horrified to discover the poor treatment of the animals in the Land of Oz. She tells Dr. Dillamond that she wants to advocate for the animals and will tell the Wizard of Oz, who she looks up to, to help their problem.

New in town is Fiyero, who Elphaba runs into while in the woods on the way home from Dr. Dillamond’s. The prince of a nearby kingdom, Fiyero catches Glinda’s eye immediately romantically, but he’s a free spirit who convinces the rest of their classmates to go to the Oz Ballroom. Glinda, to get Boq to do something, tells him to invite Nessarose.

Boq is hopelessly in love with Glinda, so he agrees, but Nessa believes that he’s going on a date with her. Elphaba asks Morrible to bring Glinda into their lessons because of this, but when everyone laughs at Elphaba in the ballroom, Glinda dances with her and they finally become friends.

Dr. Dillamond is then taken away in the middle of class. Elphaba puts everyone to sleep except Fiyero, they rescue an animal cub brought in for their presentation, and we learn Elphaba has a crush on him. But then the Wizard asks to see her, and she takes along Glinda to the Emerald City.

After seeing the town, they enter the Wizard’s domain. He says he could see Elphaba working with him, but she says that she would rather see him help the animals. Morrible shows up and they bust out the Grimmerie, which he allegedly can read, but Elphaba reads a spell and the monkey servants all sprout wings.

Elphaba is horrified, but Morrible and the Wizard say they want them as spies. Elphaba realizes that they are the reason for the animals being targeted, and she steals the Grimmerie and flees. Glinda is sent after her and she tries to tell Elphaba to reconcile with them, but Elphaba says no and is branded as a traitor across Oz.

As the soldiers chase after her, Oz is told she is a wicked witch, and Shiz is evacuated. Fiyero flees into the woods on horseback as Nessa and Elphaba’s father has a heart attack. As Elphaba flies away from Glinda, Glinda is comforted by Madame Morrible.

Overall Thoughts

I would really describe this movie as an experience for sure. It feels contemporary, but it’s also very accessible considering how deep the book version goes with the lore and the violence. Part One doesn’t go very deep into how exactly the animals and people are impacted—except when we see the reference the Cowardly Lion, still a cub stuck inside of a cage.

Anyways, I thought this was a great movie, hence calling it an experience. In the beginning I didn’t care for Ariana Grande’s performance, but it grew on me as the movie continued onwards. Erivo is great in her role as well, but I expected that from the get-go.

Not sure if I would call this Oscar worthy performances, but they certainly were good. Jonathan Bailey’s Fiyero is also a good standout performance to me as well. I wish we get to see more of him, but he isn’t the movie’s focus at all.

The live singing also added such a good element to the film overall—I think it’s great when movies can incorporate live singing.

Combined with this set design, I was really impressed with how the movie unfolded visually and on the screen, and there are even pockets of humor tucked in there. There are also some great moments in blocking that show how everyone is against Elphaba, especially in certain musical numbers.

It’s a good movie. That’s all I can say! Go watch it if you haven’t already and give it a chance. You may find it worth it!

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