Rent Wicked (2024)

Overly Long Musical Extravaganza - Wicked review by GI

I'm not a fan of big musical shows and the accompanying show tunes are lost on me consequently cinematic adaptations are not a genre I relish. Having said that this one is certainly big, colourful and extravagant and far too long, with a 'Part 2' coming along as well, this became quite a tedious experience. Firstly I have to say that as a prequel to the timeless The Wizard Of Oz (1939), this lacks the mythological aura of that great film and it's extremely difficult to get to grips with the lead character in Wicked as an early version of the iconic, cackling Wicked Witch Of The West played so brilliantly by Margaret Hamilton in the 1939 original. That aside what we have here is a teen coming of age narrative shifted over to a musical fantasy film. Essentially Ariana Grande plays Galinda, the entitled, spoilt yet hugely popular girl at Uni' pitted against the bullied, different (because she's green), Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), a loner yet very gifted student at the Oz Uni'. Forced to share a room together these two battle one another until they bond and become friends (during a very bizarre scene at a party). Ultimately the film sets up for the rivalry between these two to be continued in the next film. There's a lot of Harry Potter influence on show here but the film never feels like an interesting story. It offers nothing new to the Oz universe other than a sugarcoated story of an underdog wrongly maligned and pushed towards a spiral of hate. Jeff Goldblum is underused as the Wizard delivering basically a Goldblum style of speech. I'm sure the cast had a great time and as I said the film looks great but it's a real trial in attempting to stay interested and focused. There are some great scenes such as the monkeys getting their wings but these come intermittently. A family film that will appeal to youngsters and fans of the stage show but it didn't do anything for me.