The high rating of this feature was a bit suspicious to me right from the start because if you look into it just a bit it is very clearly a diversity message of a film. I don't necessarily mind when diversity is put in films but in this one they really went Rings of Power over-the-top with how they cast this.
That's not the reason why I didn't really enjoy it though because I actually am interested in the story here about how the Wicked Witch of the West was forced into that situation by society: That is genuinely a great storyline and something that I will probably end up suffering through the musical numbers to find out what the story is overall. In the meantime though, I am just not a fan of this type of film generally speaking so I will admit that my opinion has biases going in before I even start to watch it.
I don't need to explain what is going on here as everyone already knows the characters that are based on the Wizard of Oz. If you don't for some reason perhaps go back and watch the original film and if you truly want to torture yourself go and watch The Wiz starring Michael Jackson afterwards.
Wicked touches base on some important issues in life about how a person who is belittled, bullied, and feared their entire life will eventually start to take on those personality traits that is suspected of them in the first place even if they don't want it to be that way. A good example of how some compassion can turn a person around from this ill fate would be The Elephant Man which while a slow film, is worth seeing.
The Wicked Witch is not a bad person. She is actually very kind but due to her appearance she is mistreated and feared her entire life even by her own father. When she arrives at a wizardry school of some sort Elphaba Thropp - which is the Wicked Witch's real name - is shunned by almost everyone but due to fortunate circumstances she is spotted by a very high ranking professor who takes her under her wing. Because Glinda the Good (played by an ill looking Ariana Grande) also wants to be in the good graces of this professor, Glinda volunteers to take Elphaba on as her roommate.
Although their relationship with one another is forced and awkward at first, as time passes they start to become closer to one another and Glinda starts to realize that her roommate is not a bad person at all. Because of the rush of musical numbers that just kind of started to annoy me this is where I turned it off for the 2nd day in a row.
Again, I am not saying this is a bad film. I'm saying that this sort of thing doesn't appeal to me. I am a big fan of musicals and like many people I have paid probably way too much money to see things on Broadway in the past. I have seen Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, and Chicago. I really enjoyed seeing all of these to the point where I have seen Les Mis 2 times on Broadway and 1 time off-Broadway. This represents about half of a thousand dollars worth of tickets or so. I have NEVER seen a film adaptation of any of these beloved productions that I enjoyed including the Les Miserables one that was nominated for Oscars.
I love musicals, but I just don't tend to enjoy them on the big screen. Ironically, I tried to go and see Wicked the last time I was in New York and couldn't because it was totally sold out.
People who like musicals on screen will almost certainly enjoy Wicked and I am not going to try to tell them that they are wrong. The costumes, the sets, the actors and actresses, basically everything about this things is done very well and the audience and critic scores reflect that, if you are one of the people that thinks RT or IMBD aren't completely compromised at this point.
For people that are like me and generally do not enjoy musicals on screen, Wicked is not at all likely to change that. I am very fussy about what I enjoy in films and musicals simply aren't one of them. In my memory I can only think of 3 that I did like and they were Annie, The Wizard of Oz, and Team America: World Police.
Should I watch it?
That trailer is done so wonderfully and it is why I decided to give the movie a shot in the first place and watching it again it makes me want to leave the movie on in the background while I do other things. While I am not a fan of musical numbers in movies I do like a good story and honestly, this does have a pretty great story. I would appreciate it more without the musical numbers..
Is it apparent enough that my inability to make it all the way through this film is entirely because of me yet? Well, I will will admit that and therefore, despite my title I am going to recommend that you DO in fact, see this. That is unless you are already aware of the fact that you have a disdain for musicals the way that I do.
as of now this film is available for rent or purchase on a wide variety of streaming services for a fee.
It is not yet included as part of a subscription but is likely to land on Peacock first, since they are part of the same company that made this film
