Wicked

Is it enough for Wicked to be a better version of those live-action Disney remakes, one with more tactile sets, defter direction, and better leading performances? Maybe.

Indulgent and unwieldy as it is, Wicked is a thrill, at times wildly funny, heart-soaring, and ultimately inspirational in spite of itself.

Hard to think of many screen adaptations of Broadway musicals that were this magical. Wickedly magical.

I liked it with some caveats, mostly having to do with the length -- and the visuals sometimes felt really busy.

Drags, and drags, and drags. I was just staring at the costumes and saying "Can this end?"

A colorful, entertaining movie musical which feels exhaustingly dragged out for reasons tied explicitly to profit and greed, "Wicked"... deserves a first ballot induction into the "Does This Need to Be This Long?" Hall of Fame.

A sharper team would have realised that more thought was needed in re-jigging this into two parts, some element of daring to deconstruct the story to work in this new form that did not leave this feeling like a shrug when it should feel like a tornado.

It's inevitable, in a way, that the end result of what felt like years of press (but was really a mere 11 months) disappoints. Chu is shooting for a sprawling epic, earnest in its messaging, but it's mostly exhausting.

And we're only halfway there.

Wicked’s themes of persecution, bigotry, and the various masks behind which power manipulates the powerless and gullible feel particularly pertinent

Much like The Wizard of Oz might say, a film is judged by how much it's loved by others - and, quite remarkably, Wicked (at least the first half of it) pulsates with emotion and charisma thanks to an exceptional Cynthia Erivo who is warmly aided by...