Wicked
Neil Steffens

Review by Neil Steffens Patron

Wicked 2024

★★★

Watched 25 Nov 2024

I don't have much of an affinity for the Broadway musical this is based on. I've never seen a production of it and I've only listened to the cast recording a handful of times (I only recognized two songs here).

With that being said, this is still a magical world that I enjoyed seeing (and hearing). I wish the musical incorporated music from the 1939 film - there's a rainbow in the intro but no familiar melody to accompany it - but the Stephen Schwartz does just fine. The crescendo into the show-stopper finale is done well and the spectacle of that tune does not disappoint (I defy you to resist it!).

The main issue is that this 160 minutes and it only covers the first act of the source material. The plot is cliche so when you're expecting beats to hit, it feels longer, especially considering Jon Chu & co. are drawing this out to fill that space. Instead of arriving to a second act, this takes a lot of time to introduce characters and settings; there's even a backstory for the damn hat. If you're a Wicked fanatic, this is all probably extremely fulfilling. But again, there's no Wicked affinity here so I'm just here for the magic and music. Satisfied, sure, but a complete movie this isn't.

Oh, and Ariana Grande is somehow the best performance in this. Biggest surprise of the picture!

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