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The Land of Oz. Elphaba has been born with green skin and thus shunned from society for beng different. When she escorts her sister Nessarose, in a wheelchair, to Shiz University, Elphaba accidentally unleashes her uncontrolled magic power, and thus the dean, Madame Morrible, enlists Elphaba as the new student, to nurture her powers. Elphaba shares her room with student Galinda, a popular blonde, who becomes her friend. Talking animals are banned from society, but Elphaba and Galinda's boyfriend, Fiyero, rescue a lion cub from a cage. Elphaba travels to see the Wizard of Oz in hopes of getting rid of her green skin, but it turns out he is a charlatan without any magical powers, who uses Elphaba's magic powers to make his monkey-servants grow wings to be used as flying spies. When Elphaba refuses to work with him, the Wizard of Oz and Morrible make her a scapegoat and order the guards to arrest her, but Elphaba flees on the flying broom.
"Wicked" is a strange prequel to "The Wizard of Oz" that is colorful, fun, opulent and energetic, but by presenting the Witch as a good, kind person, it causes more continuity problems for the original film than "The Last Jedi" caused to the original "Star Wars". This isn't a re-telling or a background story to the Wicked Witch of the West—it is an alternate dimension Wicked Witch who is victim of racism, social isolation, and is an all-around good person who fights against injustice and persecution of minorities by an authoritarian charlatan, while everyone else is passive and submissive. After "Wicked", some viewers will now probably even hate Dorothy for killing the Witch in "The Wizard of Oz", which is inconsistent and contradictory to the canon. It's not quite clear what the author Gregory Maguire intended with his eponymous novel on which the movie is based on, but at times it comes close to gaslighting the audience and it doesn't fit with the original narrative of "The Wizard of Oz", since the viewers now feel pitty with the Witch.
In spite of all expectations against them, the two leading actresses Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are excellent in the roles of Elphaba and Galinda, not only in acting but also in singing, since they both have incredibly smooth voices. The whole story works in unusual symbols and allegories—for instance, in one scene a talking goat is introduced as the professor Dr. Dillamond at the Shiz University, and at first this seems ridiculous and silly. But later on, this introduction is validated and given a new context when a new decree forbids that talking animals can no longer teach humans, and then three secret police officials show up during the class and take Dr. Dillamond away into the unknown, thereby giving eerie parallels with apartheid and persecution of minorities. Several scenes are clumsy, though (the way Elphaba causes the flowers to levitate and spread some magic dust that causes every student in the class to fall asleep, except for her and Fiyero, who free a lion cub from a cage), the story is overlong at 160 minutes, whereas the songs are good and uplifting, but except for "Defying Gravity", they never quite reach the heights of the original film, such as the songs "Over the Rainbow" and "We're Off to See the Wizard". By far, the best part of the film is the last third when it becomes remarkably subversive, showing the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) as a fraud who wants to become a dictator of the land by always inventing new scapegoats to fight against ("The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy!"; "Citizens of Oz! There is an enemy who must be found and captured. Believe nothing she says!"), proving that "Wicked's" dark-sharp observations and thought-provoking symbols are stronger and more interesting than its somewhat forced musical numbers.
Grade:++
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