Elphaba, a misunderstood young woman because of her green skin, and Glinda, a popular girl, become friends at Shiz University in the Land of Oz. After an encounter with the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads.

‘Wicked’ is the latest ‘prequel’ movie where the filmmakers decide it’d be interesting if a well-established movie villain wasn’t actually a villain to begin with. I jest slightly as this is based on the supremely popular musical theatre show (which in turn was based on a mid-90s novel), which has taken Broadway, the West End and everywhere else by storm, so not a typical cash in! Despite the title, this is actually only the first part of the story, with a second movie to follow, which I was curious about as the stage show is around 3 hours long, which is only marginally more than the length of this first part, which has clearly expanded things. It’s proven very popular with audiences and with critics so far, but for my money it was 2 hours of not very much happening, followed by a really strong final 30 minutes which tees up the second movie well.

It primarily takes place before the events of ‘The Wizard of Oz’, focusing on the origin story that led to the Wicked Witch of the West becoming, well ‘Wicked’. This first part of the story is about female friendship as much as anything, as the privileged Glinda (Ariana Grande) and the outsider Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) bond and discover that despite their differences they can get on. This takes place at a boarding school for various inhabitants of Oz, and despite it pre-dating the Harry Potter novels, it very much felt like a rubbish version of Hogwarts. As their personal relationship develops, there’s an undercurrent of authoritarianism that the movie explores via mistreatment and silencing of the talking animal characters (Peter Dinklage’s goat teacher the most prominent), but this more interesting angle gets short shrift and sits oddly alongside what for large parts feels like a high school comedy-drama.

Maybe all the best songs are in the second half of the musical because there wasn’t much that stuck with me here, though it’d be churlish to skip past the showstopping ‘Defying Gravity’ which is absolutely brilliant and a large part of why the final act works much better than what came before it. Ariana Grande is excellent as Glinda (or Galinda) and Cynthia Erivo is fine as Elphaba, though I didn’t think the supporting cast were much to write home about (I’d happily see more of Jeff Goldblum’s Oz, which presumably we will in the sequel). Perhaps this is one of those movies that just isn’t for me, but at this stage I’m not quite getting the hype or seeing why ‘Wicked’ is warranting awards attention, let alone comparisons to some of the strongest Hollywood musicals of recent years.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Jon M. Chu

Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1262426/