Title – Wicked: Part 1 (2024) 

Director – Jon M. Chu (In the Heights) 

Cast – Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum

Plot – Examines the early year lives of Oz residents Elphaba (Erivo), shunned for her green skin and Galinda (Grande), a privileged child who has the world in the palms of her hands with the two becoming close as they study at Shiz University and share a common hope to one day meet the wonderful Wizard of Oz in Emerald City.   

“The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy”

Review by Eddie on 06/12/2024

A huge undertaking from Universal Pictures who undertook the task of transporting one of the modern eras most iconic Broadway productions into the cinematic landscape, splitting the property into two epic parts separated by a full year between releases, there’s a lot riding on the outcome of Wicked: Part 1 which one can safely say is a booming success in all facets. 

The newest musically minded product from director Jon M. Chu, who brings the same vibrancy and musically minded prowess he bought to the underrated In the Heights to his close to three hour epic here, Wicked is a crowd-pleasing piece of Hollywood filmmaking if there ever was one, full of life, colour, unashamedly lathered on schmaltz and more clichés than you can poke a broomstick at, all culminating in a big screen spectacle that demands to be admired around all the flaws and indulgences. 

With fears upon first trailer revels that Chu’s $150+ million dollar first instalment was going to be a heartless CGI infused disaster, it doesn’t take long for those sentiments to be washed away as Wicked’s lavish sets, costumes and production values take over to create one of the most impressively large-scale and spectacle driven musicals seen in Hollywood over the past few decades and one that will appeal to musical fans of multiple demographics, as well as those that are purely there for the Wizard of Oz connections. 

At the forefront of Chu’s big swing of a film are the beloved Broadway famous characters of Elphaba and Galinda, two young wannabe sorcerers who are studying at the legendary Shiz University where their different backgrounds clash and then join forces on their ways to discovering who they are as well as setting in stone the well-known futures that they will play a part in. 

For these layered and well-rounded character centrepieces Chu has struck gold by employing the services of renowned vocalist and performers Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande who are both revelations here as Elphaba and Galinda respectively. 

Both tasked with two polar opposite performance mandates, the two combine brilliantly as enemies turned friends with Erivo getting to bring the tormented and conflicted Elphaba wonderfully to life around Grande’s sure to be awards contending Galinda, a materialistic and privileged “it” girl who is also as charming as she is ditzy. It’s a career making turn from Grande who too this point of time has been more renowned in the music scene over the movie seen and this is the type of breakout turn equivalent to Lady Gaga in A Star is Born, ensuring the Hollywood offers are going to keep coming thick and fast. 

There’s some undeniable downtime in Wicked’s runtime, at points in the films first half it does feel as though Chu’s version of this tale treads some water and goes over similar ground a few times but when the film takes flight it really soars with the likes of renowned song showpieces like Popular, Dancing Through Life (giving male lead Jonathan Bailey his showpiece moment) and Defying Gravity all operating in the top-tier level of movie musical set-pieces that are hard to be denied or ignored. 

The type of film that if viewers let in and accept will be one that is hard not to find some type of affiliation or affection for, Wicked has arrived at a time and place where the magic of movies and the cinematic experience has found itself in the doldrums and Chu’s lavishly made and highly entertaining adaptation is the perfect antidote, setting box office booths alike while at the same time reinvigorating the shared movie going experience that will leave many counting down the days until Part Two. 

Final Say – 

An audience appeasing box office smash that is impossible to ignore, Wicked: Part One is a fantastically fun and enthusiastically made Hollywood event picture that further establishes director Jon M. Chu as a musical maestro and sets its two main figures on a path to industry superstardom with two instantly iconic acting turns. 

4 comically short train trips out of 5