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This is one of those movies that benefits from repeated watching. It's too bad it was cut into two parts; it would have made one terrific two-hour movie. As it is, it's going to be two bloated movies. At least, it's one bloated movie so far. We'll see how the other one fares next year.
The production values are terrific. The movie looks outstanding, given the constraints of making an "Oz" movie and trying to stay true to the source material while not stepping on the toes of whoever the current movie rights owner is (as of now, Warner Bros.). You know, the witch's skin is green because that's part of the story, but it can't be the same shade of green as the Margarent Hamilton green in the original Wizard of Oz movie. The Emerald City can't look too much like the Wizard of Oz Emerald City. The Wizard can't be a kindly old gent, he's got to look more like Jeff Goldblum. Stuff like that.
To me it's kind of odd that the writer of this story felt the need to make a whole new story, considering that there are already some 35 or so books set in the Oz universe, about half written by the original Oz author L. Frank Baum and the rest by his successors. But, they are all children's books, so the need was great apparently for an adult story set in the land of Oz. Hence we have "Wicked."
I went into this not knowing a thing about it, except that it's a back-story about the Wicked WItch of the West. It's kind of surprising that the story originated back in the '90s, because it seems like it came right out of today's world. It's a story about racism and inclusion, with a side helping of animal rights thrown in.
The story is quite different from that of the original 1995 book, in that the book's story takes place alongside the events of the the Dorothy, Scarecrow, etc. story. Since they can't use any of those characters or events, the whole thing is re-crafted to just be about Elphaba, a girl who is born with green skin, and her bestie and future enemy Glinda, and tells the tale of how she became so wicked.
As it turns out, she's not wicked at all; she's just misunderstood. She's basically got an image problem. For being her best friend, Glinda hooks her up with some really odd fashion choices -- a black gown, a raggedy black cloak (for warmth), and for transportation she magic-spells-up a broom to ride on. She also accidentally makes a bunch of monkeys sprout wings, and the monkeys are immediately appropriated by the Wizard to be spies. (See, he's not so wonderful after all.) Then the Wizard's side-bitch starts spreading tales about how Elphaba is evil, wicked, and green-skinned, and must be done away with immediately which causes Elphaba to flee for her life. So she's not mean and nasty, or at least not yet -- she's a desperate on-the-run falsely accused criminal who is in actuality innocent. But the government is spreading lies about her being evil, and how horrible she is because of her green skin (why that would make someone horrible is not explained), and by the way, all the animals are suddenly (due to the government again) going to be locked in cages because otherwise they learn to talk and become contributing members of society, like teachers, and we can't have that.
As you can tell from the above summary, the story is stupendously ridiculous, and why people have been eating it up for the past 30 years is kind of a mystery, but I have to admit being pretty curious about how part 2 is going to play out. Specifically, how is she going to go from being misunderstood and outcast to being truly wicked? Or will that ever really happen? I guess we'll have to wait a year to find out.
Technically the movie is fun to watch. The songs are catchy-ish the way all musical numbers these days are. The set designs, many of which are actual practical sets, are amazing. The acting is pretty good by the two principals, although some of the lip-syncing is laughably bad, particularly on the climactic parts of the songs. These girls need to watch a Julie Andrews musical to learn how it's done.
2.5 out of five stars from me. My wife liked it better than I did, but I suppose that's a pretty common thing with this movie.
The production values are terrific. The movie looks outstanding, given the constraints of making an "Oz" movie and trying to stay true to the source material while not stepping on the toes of whoever the current movie rights owner is (as of now, Warner Bros.). You know, the witch's skin is green because that's part of the story, but it can't be the same shade of green as the Margarent Hamilton green in the original Wizard of Oz movie. The Emerald City can't look too much like the Wizard of Oz Emerald City. The Wizard can't be a kindly old gent, he's got to look more like Jeff Goldblum. Stuff like that.
To me it's kind of odd that the writer of this story felt the need to make a whole new story, considering that there are already some 35 or so books set in the Oz universe, about half written by the original Oz author L. Frank Baum and the rest by his successors. But, they are all children's books, so the need was great apparently for an adult story set in the land of Oz. Hence we have "Wicked."
I went into this not knowing a thing about it, except that it's a back-story about the Wicked WItch of the West. It's kind of surprising that the story originated back in the '90s, because it seems like it came right out of today's world. It's a story about racism and inclusion, with a side helping of animal rights thrown in.
The story is quite different from that of the original 1995 book, in that the book's story takes place alongside the events of the the Dorothy, Scarecrow, etc. story. Since they can't use any of those characters or events, the whole thing is re-crafted to just be about Elphaba, a girl who is born with green skin, and her bestie and future enemy Glinda, and tells the tale of how she became so wicked.
As it turns out, she's not wicked at all; she's just misunderstood. She's basically got an image problem. For being her best friend, Glinda hooks her up with some really odd fashion choices -- a black gown, a raggedy black cloak (for warmth), and for transportation she magic-spells-up a broom to ride on. She also accidentally makes a bunch of monkeys sprout wings, and the monkeys are immediately appropriated by the Wizard to be spies. (See, he's not so wonderful after all.) Then the Wizard's side-bitch starts spreading tales about how Elphaba is evil, wicked, and green-skinned, and must be done away with immediately which causes Elphaba to flee for her life. So she's not mean and nasty, or at least not yet -- she's a desperate on-the-run falsely accused criminal who is in actuality innocent. But the government is spreading lies about her being evil, and how horrible she is because of her green skin (why that would make someone horrible is not explained), and by the way, all the animals are suddenly (due to the government again) going to be locked in cages because otherwise they learn to talk and become contributing members of society, like teachers, and we can't have that.
As you can tell from the above summary, the story is stupendously ridiculous, and why people have been eating it up for the past 30 years is kind of a mystery, but I have to admit being pretty curious about how part 2 is going to play out. Specifically, how is she going to go from being misunderstood and outcast to being truly wicked? Or will that ever really happen? I guess we'll have to wait a year to find out.
Technically the movie is fun to watch. The songs are catchy-ish the way all musical numbers these days are. The set designs, many of which are actual practical sets, are amazing. The acting is pretty good by the two principals, although some of the lip-syncing is laughably bad, particularly on the climactic parts of the songs. These girls need to watch a Julie Andrews musical to learn how it's done.
2.5 out of five stars from me. My wife liked it better than I did, but I suppose that's a pretty common thing with this movie.
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