Review of "Wicked"

This is a review of "Wicked."  The musical, not the book.  The movie, not the stage version.  Part one.  (Of the movie, not the review.)

I read the book.  I appreciated the conceit of taking a known story, and looking at it from the other side, but, overall, I found the book to be disjointed, and lacking a central point or theme.  I was somewhat interested in what was added to, and dropped from, the movie version of "The Wizard of Oz."  (I've never actually read the book of "The Wizard of Oz," although I do know some of the changes that the movie made.)  (I must admit that I'm starting to get lost in the derivative nature of this work.)

I saw the musical.  In a rather problematic situation, but I noted the changes made from the "Wicked" book, and I liked some of the songs.  So I was actually rather eager to see the movie version.

The movie version, as spectacle, is impressive.  It is worth watching, as a movie.  However, I find it odd that, with a runtime close to three hours, the character development falters, and is more alluded to than demonstrated.  If you know all the versions (and can keep them straight in your head) you can see where things are headed.  But the spectacle and production does take away from other aspects of the story.  The theme has been narrowed (and, in some places, cleaned up), but is now simply a weak version of "you shouldn't dislike different people simply because they are different," and has lost some of the depth of the "Wicked" book.  The songs have, almost all, been turned into production numbers so lavish that you are a few minutes into them before you realize "oh, yeah, I remember that song, but it's not a song anymore."

I'm still interested in seeing Part Two, whenever it comes out, but I'm not so eager anymore ...