This review is not for people who love Wicked, because you’ve already been to see the film adaptation and you’re probably already lining up your second viewing. This is for the people who, one week into the film being out, and one year into the press tour, are like: this film seems like a big deal but also, is it for me? That’s where we come in!

Pros

Wicked Is Spectacular

In that it is literally a spectacle – the school that Wicked is set in is like if Hogwarts and the Barbie Dream House had a baby and that’s a great thing to see on the big screen. Plus, there are multiple giant song and dance numbers that range from frothy fun to emotionally devastating, and there’s a lot of impact in seeing them BIG.

And then there’s the crowd factor – the cast is so sensational, you really want a big crowd watching Ariana Grande twirl her way through Popular, the glorious Jonathan Bailey smize his way through Dancing Through Life and watch Cynthia Erivo do, well, everything because she is ludicrously talented.

Wicked Is Weird AF

I saw the stage musical in 2005, and then again in 2012, but about 20 minutes into this movie when an animal started talking, I realised I don’t remember a goddamn thing about this story.

Basically, Wicked acts as both a sequel AND prequel to The Wizard Of Oz – the story begins after Dorothy kills the Wicked Witch and Glinda, the Good Witch (played brilliantly by Ariana Grande) goes and tells the villagers that ding, dong, the witch is dead. And they sing the brutal No-one Mourns the Wicked about how much they absolutely hated her and they’re jazzed she died (ouch). 

Then, one of the mean villagers is like, ‘hey, weren’t you two friends????’ and then Good Witch Glinda has to admit that she was best friends with the Wicked Witch, also known as Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo, UNBELIEVABLE), and she didn’t start out evil, she started out as a talented outcast with an unbreakable moral compass. And then the whole story takes us back to the origin story of our Green Frenemy. The plot is honestly quite all over the place but, look, can you blame it? Look at the source material.

Wicked is So Politically Timely, It’s Spooky

The animals talking isn’t just a fun little note to add some crazy to the plot, it actually helps the story become an allegory for… fascism! You know, the thing that’s coming back as we speak! 

The movie is based on a musical, which is based on the book Wicked: The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of the West (which is based on The Wizard of Oz). The book’s author, Gregory Maguire, wanted to explore ‘the nature of evil’ and the film also leans heavily into the idea of the complicity of seemingly ‘good’ people in the face of fascist regimes, in order to protect the status quo. So, yeah, it feels pretty heavy watching this in the month of both Trump’s re-election and the first stages of the Treaty Principles Bill, I’ll say that.

Wicked Contains Defying Gravity, Which Is Let It Go For Adults

Wicked is two split into two parts and the first film finishes on Defying Gravity, which is one of the best musical songs of all time. As stated previously, Cynthia Erivo is maybe the greatest singer alive and her climactic performance is so unbelievable, that you could hear the audible sobs of people in the cinema. (Me, I’m people).

You know how kids make Let It Go and Elsa their entire personality after seeing Frozen? That’s what Defying Gravity does to adults. You cannot fight it. This is your life now!!

Cons

Wicked Is So Long

The movie is 2 hours and 41 minutes, so add some previews onto that, and you’re looking at a three hour time commitment. At this time of year?? However, my wise friend informed me that there’s downtime after the song Popular, so I took 15 minutes out to wee, get a snack, make a work phone call and validate my parking (adult!!), before returning to emotionally prepare for Defying Gravity. I suggest you do the same.

Wicked Is A Musical Musical

Some musicals try and lure you into a false sense of security that they’re not really a musical, because people do performances, rather than breaking into songs at random. Wicked is not like that. People break into songs ALL the time. Sometimes it is very jarring!

Wicked Is Cut Into Two Parts

The first movie is the length of the entire musical alone (!!!) and then once you get to Defying Gravity, you then get hit with a ‘To Be Continued.’ So, if you like closure, just be warned, there isn’t any until next Christmas. But at least that fascist plot line will be even more relevant by then, eh?