*Note: This article contains spoilers for Wicked (2024).*

Wicked has a huge fan base of many devoted supporters from the hit Broadway show that includes many recognizable songs such as “Defying Gravity” and “Popular.” The film adaptation of the Broadway show recently premiered in theaters on Nov. 22, 2024.

The new Wicked movie has a run time of 2 hours and 40 minutes which caused many of my problems with the film. A current issue the film industry is facing is having an audience whose attention span is short and who can easily become bored or not entertained. I usually don’t have a problem with this when it comes to film because a lot of my favorite movies such as Oppenheimer, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dune: Part 2 have similar run times. 

However, what sets apart these movies compared to Wicked is their pacing. Many scenes in Wicked felt like they dragged on way too long and the dialogue started to become repetitive. An example is when Elphaba first rides on her broom. This scene is clearly meant to be grand and display a change in character in The Wicked Witch, but instead that momentum begins to decrease as a result of the scene being far too long and monotonous. 

Another matter that reflects on pacing is the idea of adapting a musical into a movie. I have been to a few musicals, whether Broadway or Hollis Brookline’s theater productions, and the viewing experience of a movie is vastly different from the experience at a musical. Musicals have the opportunity to engage with the audience, making it more subversive and entrancing, while movies can only rely on how it’s presented on screen. This ultimately sets back the movie because it does not have that aspect that makes musicals so bewitching. 

To backtrack to 1939, The Wizard of Oz was a huge accomplishment in the film industry and opened up many doors for the future of film. It is one of the first colorized movies in an age of primarily black and white film making the magical land of Oz much more appealing and captivating. Although the movie was made in the late 30s, the set and costume design were outstanding and drew audiences into a fantasy land. Wicked, being made at a time when CGI and movie effects were available, had the advantage of building and adding more to the whimsical aspect of the world of Oz, and yet it still fell short. Although Wicked was colorful, a prime example being the Emerald City, it could have been more detailed to explore the true dream-like feel of Oz. According to a Stephanie Zacharek TIME review, “the movie is so aggressively colorful, so manic in its insistence that it’s OK to be different, that it practically mows you down.” 

An opportunity to create a meticulous and imaginative set would be the scenes in the forest. The boring set design was too realistic and took away a lot of the film’s world-building. A movie that perfectly executes the vibe of an enchanted forest is The Dark Crystal directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. The entire set of The Dark Crystal was handmade and almost absurdly intricate but perfectly matched every aspect of the movie such as the plot, characters and score. Many of the set design choices in Wicked looked as if they were rushed and not much thought was put into them.

A similar trend that seems to appear more often in film is movies being split into parts. All of a sudden it has been normalized to only come out with half a movie. The reasoning is to create talk around the film and have the audience leave the movie wanting more, but this does not justify it. Movies such as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Avengers and many more follow this format, which can be irritating. A Wicked movie review by Kerri Mac on K92.3.fm expresses how “one of my main concerns going into seeing the movie was that they were splitting it into two parts. The Broadway version of Wicked’s runtime is 2 hours and 45 minutes with a fifteen-minute intermission. This first part of the two-part adaptation has the exact same runtime as the theatrical version!” Personally, when I watch these types of movies, I do not leave the theater excited for the next part but rather leave frustrated that I just paid $20 to watch an unfinished movie knowing I’ll have to spend even more later to watch the entire story. 

As a film adaptation, Wicked took on the big challenge of trying to add to a beloved franchise while still satisfying fans’ high hopes. However, it struggled with a long run time, slow pacing, and a disappointing set design.