150 Word Review: 'Wicked: Part One' (2024)
Because, because, because, because, because...
There's lots of dancing—real people moving and shaking on big, fancy sets— in Wicked, director Jon Chu's lavish adaptation of the Tony-award-winning Broadway smash based on the bestseller by Gregory Maguire. Then there's Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, the super-powered, green-skinned misfit. She is vulnerable and willful, with a bright voice as big as the sky. Ariana Grande is hilarious as Glinda, an ambitious, blonde semi-mean girl.
It shocks me how much Harry Potter owes to Wicked: wizards, revisionist myths, boarding schools. But Rowling stole none of the book's queerness, moral clarity, or its love of the outcast. Pity. Wicked has a sharp message: don't trust the man behind the curtain.
Wicked works best when the camera sits like an audience and smiles. It is weakest when it forgets it's a musical and tries to deliver a big-budget blockbuster. The showstopping number 'Defying Gravity' is constantly interrupted by CGI action.
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Joh, I'm dying to read your book! But I need it as an eBook. Will you release an electronic version anytime soon?
Agree on the CGI point! I had read that Cynthia Erivo did her own stunts for the Defying Gravity scene but I was so distracted by the CGI.