Movie Review: Wicked

Wicked was a movie that was adapted from the original Broadway hit Wicked. It focuses around the backstory of the Wicked Witch and is told from the point of view of another witch, Glinda, who is seen as the good witch. The musical was a spinoff from the movie The Wizard of Oz. Wicked the movie premiered on November 22, 2024 around America, and locally it premiered on December 27, 2024 at the Hamburg Strand. The movie was split into two parts and the next part will be coming out this year in 2025. The first part of the movie was directed by Jon M. Chu, and written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox. The starring actors are Arianna Grande who played Glinda, the good witch, and Cynthia Erivo who played Elphaba, the Wicked Witch.
The first part of the movie starts after the death of the Wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz. Glinda tells the town of Oz about what Elphaba was like when they were in Shiz University together. Elphaba was green due to her mother having an affair, which made her an outcast to everybody at school. Originally she was only there to help her sister Nessarose, who was in a wheelchair, but when she arrived she ended up causing a scene in front of the whole school out of anger, where she used her magic. One of the teachers, Madame Morrible, at the school had noticed Elphaba’s powers and decided to help her control it so that she would not do anything bad. The storyline continues from there as the characters meet new friends along the way and experience different betrayals and life changing events.
Sophomore Molly Fox saw the movie on the first night it premiered so nothing was spoiled for her. She really enjoyed the movie and would give it a four out of five stars. Her favorite part of the movie was that it had some small connections to The Wizard of Oz. Her least favorite part was that since the DVD of the movie was released, there are multiple deleted scenes that she feels would have been a good touch to the movie. Another thing that she did not like about the movie was the length of the movie as it is about two hours and 40 minutes, but she did understand that it had to be so long due to the amount of detail in the movie.
Junior Bethan Stufflet saw the movie later as she waited until it became available at the Hamburg Strand. She was luckily able to also stay away from any spoilers until she saw it which gave her an opportunity to really enjoy the movie. Her rating on the movie is also four out of five stars. Her favorite part of the movie was how great the movie looked with all of the scenery. Something she disliked about the movie was the ending because it ended on a cliffhanger. And she also agrees that the movie was too long, especially since the second part of the movie is coming out next year.
Overall Wicked has been liked by many people, but also disliked due to the long running time of the movie.