Wicked: A Weak Spell

Fans of both the novel and the musical rushed to watch Wicked the moment it hit the theaters. The film quickly became a cultural phenomenon, with scenes going viral on platforms like TikTok. It went on to gross $756 million worldwide, making it the highest-earning film adaptation of a Broadway musical. Yet, despite its popularity, Wicked isn’t without its flaws—particularly when it comes to its characters and their development.

As a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, Wicked explores the untold story of the witches of Oz. It follows the early lives of Galinda (later Glinda), the Good Witch of the North, and Elphaba, the loathed Wicked Witch of the West. Born with green skin, Elphaba faced bullying throughout her childhood. Even after being sent to Shiz University—a school for aspiring witches and wizards—she continued to be avoided and mocked. One of her new classmates, the popular and privileged Galinda, wanted nothing to do with her. To their horror, the two were assigned as roommates.

At first, they couldn’t stand each other. But over time, Galinda and Elphaba slowly grew to understand one another, eventually forming a deep and unexpected friendship. This friendship also leads to the school starting to accept Elphaba. The movie highlights this transformation and ultimately focuses on their emotional farewell. In the end, Elphaba chooses to rebel against the false Wizard of Oz—an ordinary man with no magical powers—and escapes on her broomstick, choosing to part from Glinda and follow her own path in life.

However, these two main characters felt underdeveloped, and their design seemed rushed. They had distinctive traits and personalities that were the polar opposite of each other. The two of them together did not produce any development and changing of the characters. Even after witnessing the Wizard’s corruption, Glinda still chose to stay in the kingdom for fear of harming her reputation. Elphaba, on the contrary, remained dark and tempestuous. This often gave the feeling of two characters in two completely different movies.

Although Galinda’s bubbly personality is part of her charm, she often giggles in serious scenes. For example, when Madame Morrible chose Elphaba to participate in her sorcery class and ignored Galinda, it was clear that Galinda felt disappointed. However, instead of showing this, she masks it with a clap and a hesitant congratulating line, followed with a giggle. Her giggles are scattered like this throughout the movie. They seem to hide her insecurity rather than signifying real growth.

The traits of Elphaba were also partially unexpanded on. Elphaba was depicted as a student with magical powers from birth. She exhibited the ability to levitate items and launch them at people. However, this only happened when she had strong emotions such as anger. Elphaba also kept screaming at inappropriate times where a softer reaction would have been better. For instance, when Elphaba found out that the wizard was behind the animals being silenced, she screamed and threw items at him, breaking multiple things. This act could be seen as immature and impulsive.

All in all, the movie Wicked had many scenes that could be improved. The main characters were undeveloped and flat. Their personalities were unique, but their actions seemed unfitting at times. In serious scenes, Glinda’s giggles seemed awkward and dismissed the emotional aspect. In more emotional scenes, Elphaba screaming made the whole scene look impulsive. However, the visual aspects were still good and the storyline connected smoothly. Although visually appealing, the movie lacked the emotional transformation needed to truly cast a good spell. Overall, I give this movie 2 stars.