*****
Wicked shares an achievement with the Disney Star Wars trilogy: it’s so horrendous, it makes Lucas’s prequel trilogy look competent.
Stupid premise aside, Wicked’s worst crime is undermining the wonder and beauty of The Wizard of Oz - both Baum’s book and the 1939 film. It “subverts expectations” (anyone else sick of that term?), by telling you that The Wicked Witch of the West was a misunderstood victim.
If that’s not bad enough, you’re led to believe that the Munchkins were assholes. Further, Glinda was a jealous bitch , who’d one day manipulate Dorothy into destroying The Wicked Witch. Also, The Great Oz is a power-thirsty prick, who feels threatened by talking animals. Not shitting you.
In short, the only OG characters to remain intact (for now) are Lion, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Dorothy. I’m sure their deconstruction will come in Part 2.
Where Lucas succeeded with the prequels was how well he displayed Anakin’s trajectory to the Dark Side. It was never at the expense of the characters around him.
Despite Obi-Wan’s failure, you still like him, as he tried to save Anakin. Padme begged Anakin to stop his evil deeds. The other characters’ integrity remained intact, as they did nothing to drive Anakin into the hands of Palpatine.
Additionally, Anakin did horrendous shit. He slaughtered defenseless kids. I’ll say that again: ANAKIN MURDERED KIDS. There’s no misunderstanding that. He had no remorse either, because Lucas wanted us to know Anakin was pure evil and Palpatine’s puppet. No nuance there. No certain point of view.
In essence, the worst crime that can be done with established, beloved characters is to run them into the ground (like Disney did to Luke, Han, and Leia), just to make your shitty new or co-opted character look better. Some may praise you, but you also draw a sea of ire from legacy fans, who don’t like their hobbies fucked with.
So, trash the prequels as you will - Jar-Jar and all, but at least Lucas didn’t destroy other characters or make Anakin look like a misunderstood victim. Fuck Disney and fuck Universal Pictures.
Have you read the book?
It was better than I expected it to be, the first part is a bit slow but then it kicks in and gets quite good. I've only read a few of his works, they were all inverted fairy tales and fables ~ Cinderella, told from the stepsister's perspective, is an entitled fucking bitch who stomped all over her less fortunate sisters to always get her way, etc.
You do you, mate ~ I don't know how faithful this movie is to the book, I just thought I'd point out that the source material is what you have fault with here rather than the people behind this adaptation.
@Doll @txt said before in a previous post, but the movie is faithful to the Broadway musical. The musical did change a number of things from the book, so the book is not the best point of comparison.
I do not think the book or musical was meant to say that the witch was never a villain in the original story, but rather it was meant to have fun with the concept of "what if the wicked witch was not a bad guy?"
Still, you don't have to like it. But understand what it is.
