Wicked

Social media was inundated with advertising about Wicked, more so than any other movie I've seen in the last few years. So it's really my own fault that I knew so little about it before walking into the theater, but I was hoping that would make me fit right into the target audience. All these remakes and sequels seem designed to painstakingly carry the viewer through the plot in a way that frustrates dedicated fans.

But when I watched Wicked, I needed some carrying. I left the theater saying I don't really "get" the friendship between Elphaba and Galinda. Seemed to me they were just jerks to each other the whole film. Turns out I had just completely misread a key scene (spoilers below).

The whole first part of the movie, Elphaba and Galinda can't stand each other. One might call it unadulterated loathing. Their weapon of choice against each other seems to be petty, tit for tat retaliations culminating in the events right before the students go to the Ozdust Ballroom. So when Galinda gives Elphaba an ugly hat and an invititation to the party at the Ballroom (which Elphaba accepts quite cautiously), I was expecting Elphaba to retaliate. At the party, Madame Morrible unexpectedly arrives and begrudingly offers to accept Galinda as her student, adding that she's only doing it because Elphaba demanded she come to the Ballroom to do it tonight.

Demanding for Madame Morrible to come to the Ozdust Ballroom (which was off-limits for students) struck me as something you'd only do if you wanted revenge. Galinda could have gotten in trouble for being caught there, and was prevented from getting closer to Prince Fiyero in the process, in addition to being embarrassed by her would-be teacher.

Apparently this wasn't the right interpretation. Apparently Elphaba was thanking Galinda for connecting her sister Nessarose with Boq. Elphaba's act of selflessness is supposed to be so grand as to be the catalyst for Galinda's character transformation, leading to their friendship. Needless to say, I was quite confused why they were suddenly buddy-buddy after (what I assumed was) just another round of retaliations between them and a random dance scene.

So if my own lack of attention caused this confusion, surely I don't blame the movie, right? Actually, I do. I understand the movie has to be somewhat faithful to the original, but every adaptation has a little wiggle room, and that's all it would take to fix this scene. Just have Madame Morrible not say "Elphaba demanded I give you the wand here, tonight". She could say "I thought I'd just go ahead and give you the wand tonight" or something instead. Problem solved!

Well, there were other things confusing to me too. A minor one is why Madame Morrible was so quick to turn, and why she's motivated to side with the Wizard. But a major one is: what's the deal with the animal hatred subplot?

Here's where I could offer a unique perspective as a vegan movie reviewer, but really there's so little substance to "the animal hatred subplot" that there's not much to say. Who hates the animals? Why do we never see anyone (not even the Wizard) expressing anti-animal sentiments? I get that the animals are supposed to be an allegory for racism, possibly mirroring the scapegoating (literally with Professor Dillamond) of Jewish people in between the World Wars. But that's the problem with movie depictions of evil people: you have to actually show them doing the evil thing.

Lack of on-screen evilness is one reason I believe the political messaging of the original Star Wars trilogy flew over peoples heads. Darth Vader's evilness largely happened off-screen or in the past, so now people put Empire insignias on their cars and dress up as Darth Vader for Halloween. You don't see people idolizing President Snow after you seem him personally order the bombing of a hospital in Mockingjay Part 1, (well until they made him hot in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes).

Anyway, Wicked is still quite a beautiful film and the songs are wonderfully performed. I just feel like the plot, characters, and messaging have struggled to survive through a movie adaptation of a musical adaptation of an extended universe of a movie adaptation of a novel.