The first part makes no sense

What does that diet do?
Photo: Universal Pictures

Wicked: Part One ends on a high note, literally and figuratively. In her final moments, Elphaba, played by Cynthia Erivo, peels off her face as she floats through the air on her newly levitating magical broomstick, singing “Defying Gravity” and declaring her own power for the first time in her life. It’s fantastic. But it can also be hard to focus on everything we need to focus on when the dynamics of her diet make absolutely no sense. We’re not asking for realism here – it’s a flying broomstick – but we want it to follow some sort of logic. And the film, directed by Jon M. Chu, strips us of any diet-based understanding of how the magic of Oz works.

Before “Defying Gravity”, Elphaba accidentally uses a levitation spell she reads in the film’s magical spellbook, Grimmerie, to make monkeys grow wings. Then, during “Defying Gravity,” she tries to make themselves grows wings, but instead accidentally enchants a broom to fly. It would make more sense if the diet also grew wings, but that’s not possible because the real goal is for the movie to explain how she gets the wicked witch’s diet. Then Elphaba jumps out of a window and loses it. As she falls through the air, the broom comes flying at her as if she is controlling it, although she is definitely not controlling the flying monkeys. So the spell makes the broom come to her hand when she wants it, which isn’t the case for anything she previously used the spell on? Make it make sense.

Perhaps more creepily, when Elphaba first gets on the diet, she suddenly levitates. That’s right – she doesn’t use the broom to fly; she flies herself. We know this because at certain points she holds the broom at a right angle to her body and remains completely suspended. If only the broom was flying, you’d think she’d be under it, but she’s not. She flies by herself while looking down on people below her. How? How does she do it?

When Elphaba casts a spell, absolutely anything can happen, which makes the effort Wicked: Part Two confusing at best because we don’t know what the consequences of any of her actions will be. Wicked: Part One is so, so long. (Two hours and 40 minutes, to be specific.) The least it could do is explain the basic mechanics behind the most powerful magic in all of Oz. Make the broom fly, or make the monkeys grow wings, or make Elphaba soar. But all that with one spell? As it defies gravity, the film begins to defy its own logic, and that’s it ba-a-ad.