Wicked is a wonderful movie musical with one glaring issue

The two leads shine in this long-awaited movie adaptation of the musical Wicked – but there’s a noticeable problem on screen.

The long-awaited movie version of the musical Wicked finally hits cinemas this week, following one of the weepiest globetrotting publicity tours in recent memory.

Well, half of it. Despite a mammoth runtime of 2 hours and 40 minutes, Wicked is actually part one of the story – or act one, to be exact. The film ends at intermission, with the sequel to follow next year.

But despite this, the film works as a stand-alone story, and doesn’t leave you feeling like you’ve been thrust out halfway to take the world’s longest theatre loo break.

A prequel to the events of The Wizard of Oz, this Jon M. Chu-directed blockbuster sees Broadway fave Cynthia Erivo cast as a young Elphaba, gifted school outcast rather than the Wicked Witch of the West she’ll soon become.

Pop princess Ariana Grande plays Glinda, the future Good Witch of the West, Elphaba’s school rival turned ally.

Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba …

… and Ariana Granda is Glinda.

As evidenced by her recent star turn on Saturday Night Live, Grande proves herself to be a gifted physical comedian. With every outsized hair flick she fully embodies Glinda’s privileged, oblivious ditziness, and provides most of the film’s biggest laughs.

Erivo has a quiet power to her performance as Elphaba, making it all the more electrifying when she lets rip for that big Defying Gravity finale.

Elsewhere, so-hot-right-now British actor Jonathan Bailey brings his usual cheeky charm to the supporting role of love interest Fiyero, and there’s a thrilling fan service cameo in the midst of the film involving two very familiar faces to fans of the original Broadway show.

The two leads are outstanding. The lighting? Not so much.

But there is one hard-to-ignore flaw with Wicked: Poor lighting. I’m certainly not the first to note this – many on social media have, in recent months, unfavourably compared the trailer to the OG Wizard of Oz in all its technicolour glory:

we have strayed so far from God’s light pic.twitter.com/cHRXF5wYQO

— the lesser known fourth head of Cerberus (@ethanrants_) October 29, 2024

I think the reaction to the colouring and lighting in Wicked is in part fuelled by the fact that it’s essentially a prequel to a movie famous for it’s use of colour and arguably being one of the most visually arresting pieces of art ever made pic.twitter.com/nlWHxLhWg7

— Shiv (@shivilly) October 29, 2024

you really dont see just how drab wickeds coloring is until you turn up the saturation yourself like omg the whole marketing for this movie is pink and green whys it so dreary looking pic.twitter.com/JH3UKHbFww

— frieda kuppens (@anitacoxenbutt) November 18, 2024

That persists throughout the film – time after time, key scenes are lit as though you’re watching a particularly gloomy episode of Game of Thrones. When the light does come for some of the big musical numbers, it’s overly glary and washes out the action.

When your leading lady is emoting about how ostracised she is for being green, and the scene is lit so poorly you can’t even tell she’s green, surely there’s a problem.

Despite this, Wicked is one of the more enjoyable movie musicals to be released in recent years.

Let’s just hope they figured out to turn on the lights before they started filming part two.

Wicked is in Australian cinemas from Thursday November 21.

Originally published as Wicked is a wonderful movie musical with one glaring issue