To prepare for Wicked: Part One, I went to my local theater and saw the stage play. It is with great sadness that I wasn’t too impressed by Wicked. Outside of the two lead performances and maybe three of the songs, I believed the musical was the definition of fan fiction. Its heart was in the right place, but the stench of fan fiction made me turn away. With this information, I was dreading to watch Wicked: Part One. With the over saturated marketing campaign and the never ending controversies with the cast, I was ready to hate on Wicked: Part One. Then when your theater is filled with Ariana Grande and Wicked stans who are cheering and clapping every five minute with their phones out to record every minute of it, and then they tell you to “Fuck off and to get a life” when you ask them to put their phones away, needless to say I did not enjoy myself while watching Wicked: Part One. It will obviously please fans of the musical, but for everyone else, it is crowd pleasing at best the moment you start to think about it.
I’m willing to defend the decision to split Wicked into two parts. The stage musical itself runs nearly three hours, and once you start adding some cinematic elements to make it flow better on screen, the runtime would easily exceed three and a half hours. Splitting it into two films makes sense. I had hoped this split would address some of the shortcomings of the stage production. The musical’s story often feels scattered, with underdeveloped subplots like the animal conspiracy and Glinda’s abrupt shift from a mean girl to Elphaba’s best friend. The tone also swings wildly, particularly in the latter half of Act One. My hope was that the film adaptation would smooth out these rough edges. Unfortunately, Wicked: Part One doesn’t tackle these issues. Instead, it stretches the 90-minute first act of the musical into a bloated 160-minute.
The film closely follows Act One of the stage production, from the opening number “No One Mourns the Wicked” to “I’m Not That Girl,” almost beat for beat, with added scenes and moments intended to help the story flow better in a cinematic medium. The first hour and a half adheres to the pacing of the musical, while the last hour is dominated by the numbers “One Short Day” through “Defying Gravity.” Despite largely following the musical’s structure, Wicked: Part One suffers from severe pacing issues, particularly in the first two-thirds. This section drags on far too long, leaving the audience impatiently waiting for the climactic “Defying Gravity.” Surprisingly, this happens even though it mirrors the stage pacing. The final third, though slightly overextended, is better paced, even if it diverges somewhat from the original structure.Ultimately, the film’s added fluff fails to enhance the story and instead turns Act One into a drawn-out and uneven experience.
The musical numbers didn’t impress me much, just like in the stage version. While the vocal performances were undeniably strong, every time the characters broke into song and dance, it pulled me out of the film. Apart from “Defying Gravity”—arguably the only standout number in Wicked—the overall staging of the musical sequences left much to be desired. The choreography often felt silly and jarring, and the camerawork relied on basic tracking shots that lacked creativity or flair. The costume and production design were immaculate, showcasing a lot of effort and attention to detail, but this was undermined by poor lighting and gray color grading that washed out the visual splendor. One exception was “Dancing Through Life,” which improved upon the stage version by creatively utilizing its set to enhance the dance numbers. Unfortunately, the film never escapes a sense of commercial artificiality, making it hard to feel fully immersed in the world of Wicked.
As for the acting, the vocal performances were phenomenal, as expected, but strip away the singing, and most of the cast fell flat. Cynthia Erivo was outstanding during her musical numbers, but her acting felt lifeless outside of the club scene where Elphaba dances. The same applies to Ariana Grande as Galinda—her singing was impressive, but her acting came across as overly artificial. Her reliance on exaggerated eye movements due to the extreme amounts of botox she has been taking, gave her an alien-like appearance that made it difficult to connect with her emotionally. Jeff Goldblum was simply Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz—playing to type without adding much depth. Michelle Yeoh, unfortunately, felt miscast as Madame Morrible, struggling to bring the character to life. The only standout in both acting and singing was Jonathan Bailey, whose charisma and charm as Prince Fiyero truly shone through, making him a highlight of the cast.
Overall, this has been one of the most difficult films for me to evaluate. My experience was clouded by a terrible theater environment and the fact that I was never particularly impressed by the original stage musical. That said, I found the film to be decent, but not much more. Fans of the musical will likely be thrilled, as it stays faithful to the source material and amplifies some of its most iconic moments. For general audiences, however, it’s more of a surface-level crowd-pleaser—enjoyable in the moment but lacking the depth to resonate long after the credits roll.
My Rating: C+
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