‘Wicked’ Movie Review: What It Tried/Failed to Teach Us

Seun Shokunbi, Editor

Is the movie for those who watched the Broadway play?

Probably not.

Is the movie creating a new fandom, especially from those who never saw the play?

It depends on how you measure this. It is now the highest-grossing Broadway musical adaptation of all time according to CBS News. That could prove that people who’ve never seen the Broadway version may want to watch it.

Was this a beneficial and necessary movie to make?

That is a more complicated question. And it is very subjective, based on the viewer and the emotional context they bring into the film.

But it’s a necessary question to ask based on what the film director says in interviews, and based on the obvious themes covered in the Broadway musical and the book that it is based on.

So here’s an attempt at answering it. Feel free to leave respectable comments below with your reactions to this response and movie review.

First, a general review of the cinematography and screenplay…

I’m not as equipped to discuss cinematography, as I’m a writer primarily. So my biggest critique will be about the screenplay.

Speaking from a novice’s perspective, the visuals and special effects looked great to me. That’s what kept me most engaged. I think the “Dancing Through Life” visuals were cool. I liked the backstory of Marissa Bode, an actress who in real life is a paraplegic woman, being involved with the stunts for the opening scene. I thought that was a cool way to meet John Chu's (the director’s) desire for an inclusive set—something we’ll get into later.

What I disliked was the pacing of the screenplay. 

Many reviews already point out that Part One of this two-part movie is as long as the entire Broadway play. This means the screenwriters added more scenes to the movie than there were in the original stage adaptation. And there was no payoff for it. It felt as if they forced dialogue and musical numbers to go longer than needed. Choices that would have been more effective on stage than on screen, in my opinion.

For example, the train scene when Elphaba was on her way to see the Wizard was stretched long unnecessarily. I think even the opening scene, with the town celebrating Elphaba’s alleged demise, went on for too long. 

As much as we Broadway fans love “Defying Gravity”, that scene could’ve been a lot shorter unless they were going to include a back-and-forth dialogue between Glinda and Elphaba coming to terms with what was just revealed about the Wizard, and the moral dilemma going on in Glinda’s mind that ultimately made it easy for her to turn heel and be used in Madame Morrible’s propaganda campaign. They could have done a better job unpacking that if they were going to make the scene longer.

This is a good transition to that complicated yet necessary question I mentioned earlier: Was this a beneficial and necessary movie to make?

Before writing this review, I wanted to research what John Chu said about his choices in directing this film, to be careful not to project my visceral reactions from the film onto him or make assumptions about what he did or did not consider as repercussions to his casting and story adaptation decisions.

In an interview with CBS News, Chu said his childhood in California’s Bay Area, growing up as the son of Chinese immigrants, drew him to the project. He also described where the story is going this way:

Elphaba says the words, “Something has changed within me. Something is not the same.” Those words are the thing that made me realize I have to do this movie now. Part 1 is the choice to rise, and Part 2 is what happens when you stand up.

When he says all of this, you can make a safe, educated guess about what he’s alluding to.

Anyone who watched the play or—as a hardcore fan—read the book written by Gregory Maguire knows the story is about fascism. It’s not up for debate. 

Someone in the comments section is probably going to yell “WOKE POLICE” but I’m sorry to tell you that almost every other modern-day book, movie, or TV show is a clarion call for pending late-stage capitalism and dystopia.

And this is what worried me about the movie from the time they announced who was playing Elphaba.

The first time I watched the play was, ironically, in November 2016. Hopefully, I don’t have to explain the significance of that period.

I went to watch the play as a chaperone for high school students from a predominately Black and Latino neighborhood, not knowing anything about the story behind the play. So I thought this would be a nice escape from what was happening in American politics at the time.

BOY WAS I WRONG.

But I don’t remember being too upset once I realized the topics the play would cover. I cried and thought maybe, just maybe, if more people would watch the play they would be motivated to do something in real life to fight the evils represented in the musical.

Fast forward to 2024, and it’s like déjà vu with vertigo. Not only did we have the same election result as 2016, but we’ve also had at least a year of seeing violence against innocent people at the hands of heads of state, with impunity. It’s important to also say we had the first Black woman to secure the presidential nomination and come the closest to making history as the future U.S. president.

I think this is why watching Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba affected me more than I wanted it to.

Watching two white women as both Elphaba and Glinda, made it less psychologically stressful to process the political messages when I saw “Wicked” on Broadway. 

But casting Elphaba as a Black woman with micro braids dealing with microaggressions made it impossible for me to ignore the very real parallels between what was happening on screen and what we’d just experienced IRL.

Honestly, I was a little uneasy about Erivo’s casting when I first heard about it because I immediately read it as coding green skin with Black skin, thereby perpetuating the subconscious notion of Black skin being associated with evil. I know Erivo has an outstanding voice and would do Elphaba’s songs justice. But I couldn’t help but think this would be an unfair way to typecast Black women yet again in roles that force them to defend their humanity.

Then, the movie unluckily premiering in November 2024 after a very racially, misogynistic-ally charged political situation just made my movie-going experience worse. I’m not sure if that’s 100% the movie’s fault because I already knew the themes of the story and knew this wasn’t going to be a slapstick comedy. 

Nevertheless, in my opinion, if Chu’s goal was to put a mirror up to society and ask the viewers what are you going to do when you see injustice in real life, then he should have put the responsibility on someone else and left Black women out of it.

I get it, diversity in media matters. Black women need to access high-profile (hopefully also high-paying) roles like this in Hollywood. But, I wish it wasn’t always roles trying to educate people on morality or begging people to see marginalized groups as worthy.

Many articles in publications like the Harvard Business Review criticize symbolic efforts for addressing diversity and marginalization without addressing the deeper issues of what it takes to make sure life improves for those hurt by discrimination. 

With Erivo cast as Elphaba and Ariana Grande playing Glinda, the message Chu seems to be sending is that more White people need to be better allies. I love this YWCA article that says that’s the wrong discussion to have.

Instead, we should be discussing the difference between an ally and an accomplice.

An accomplice doesn’t just express support. An accomplice doesn’t do virtue signaling, like Glinda taking the “Ga-” out of her name in respect for animals’ accents. Or White women wearing blue bracelets to show Black women they care.

Instead, an accomplice takes consistent, tangible steps to challenge and dismantle oppressive systems and structures, even if or when it means they lose the privileges their status affords them.

SPOILER ALERT in case you’re unaware: Glinda won’t do that at the end of this story. And Elphaba is driven to live underground, away from the city she grew up in, or risk being destroyed by the people in it.

That’s not a message I want to be conveyed to Black girls or women when they see a Black woman cast in this role, dealing with challenges and circumstances VERY SIMILAR to their real life (without the talking animals, etc., of course). 

Maybe it has to do with the trend of Black women being seen as society’s saviors—or people always trying to praise us for or convince us to be the soldiers who put our lives on hold to save others from themselves.

We are tired. At least I am tired. And I just wanted to go see a movie and for once not think about that. About fighting for the right to just be and chill.

So, was this a necessary movie to make? I think so. I subscribe to both the Marxist and Psychoanalytic schools of thought around film. This means I think TV and movies are meant to help an audience deconstruct individualistic and systemic dynamics that either promote or hinder equity and universal access to a high quality of life.

Was this a beneficial movie to make? Not with the casting. I am, of course, one person coming with unique emotional and psychological baggage to this film. So my opinion is not law.

However, the noticeable difference I experienced watching the play in 2016 and now the movie in 2024, under similar circumstances, tells me that casting choices make a huge impact on the way you process messages from a piece of media.

For example, what would happen if Erivo was cast as Glinda, and Ariana as Elphaba?

Someone right now is shouting NO at the screen, thinking that wouldn’t make any sense. And my immediate response is why?  You’d have to admit it is because we assign people to roles in a make-believe medium based on what roles they're assigned in reality, whether or not it’s fair or perceived as limiting.

To make this long story short—it is not beneficial to make a movie like ‘Wicked’ if an audience isn’t ready to have their worldview shattered, or if a director isn’t brave enough to try regardless of the audience's pushback.

Until we’re ready to have that conversation, as I said before, leave Black women out of this. Hash out the details among yourselves.