Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West and her relationship with Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. The second of a two-part feature film adaptation of the Broadway musical.

Billed as the biggest cinematic event of the year, the second part of ‘Wicked’, subtitled ‘For Good’, arrives on a wave of hype after last year’s critical and commercial smash. I wasn’t as swept up by the first instalment as most though it did have some great songs and a standout Ariana Grande as Glinda, but even I wasn’t prepared for how frankly terrible this sequel is. Picking up with Glinda’s rise and Elphaba’s flight, ‘For Good’ explores whether their friendship can survive a world determined to pull them apart.

The scepticism that greeted the decision to split a three-hour stage musical into two films now feels generous. With the strongest songs frontloaded into Part 1 and the first movie ending on the high of ‘Defying Gravity’, this second half has noticeably less to work with, and director Jon M. Chu does very little with it. As a musical, its biggest problem is obvious – the songs simply aren’t memorable. Nothing here comes close to the energy of ‘Popular’ or the emotional punch of ‘Defying Gravity’, with even the better efforts (‘No Good Deed’ and the Wizard’s odd dance number) feeling like B-sides.

Weak songs might be forgivable if the story held together, but the narrative is as messy as it is shallow. Rather than cleverly reframing ‘The Wizard of Oz’, it outright contradicts it, and not in ways that feel interesting or earned. Logic within Oz collapses entirely: Elphaba is supposedly the most wanted fugitive in the land, Glinda the most famous figure (Oz aside), yet they can meet privately whenever the plot requires, whether in open fields or by strolling unchallenged into the Emerald City. The film also tries to make sweeping statements about prejudice and the mistreatment of minorities or the ‘other’, but does so with a heavy-handedness that sits awkwardly tonally with everything around it.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo remain the film’s saving graces, with Erivo getting the meatier material this time. A couple of origin-story nods to Dorothy’s companions land well enough, but even they feel awkwardly wedged into the ‘Wicked’ narrative. The other performances less so, with Michelle Yeoh particularly awful and even Jeff Goldblum phoning it in after a promising small part in the first movie. The production design is surprisingly lacklustre too, with night scenes in particular looking distractingly poor.

As it builds to the finale, the film settles on a tidy ending that doesn’t so much reimagine ‘The Wizard of Oz’ as contradict it, and the result is a movie that I found really poor and, at times, frankly irritating (‘clock tick’).

Rating: 2/5

Directed By: Jon M. Chu

Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Marissa Bode, Colman Domingo, Sharon D. Clarke, Bowen Yang and Bronwyn James

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt19847976/