Perhaps it’s just my own innate inverse reaction to hype, but boy was I underwhelmed by this. It was always going to be the harder film to make an impression, given it’s a prequel to “Wizard of Oz” and is therefore somewhat boxed in from a plot perspective. Anyway,  “Elphaba” (Cynthia Erivo) has had to flee from “Oz” leaving her friend “Galinda” (Ariana Grande-Butera) playing the role of the goody-goody for the wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and his hench-witch “Madame Morrible” (Michelle Yeoh). “Elphie” is determined to prove to the people that their leader is a fraud, but with the local population perfectly content with his governance, she has quite a battle on her hands. Indeed, the more she attempts to expose him, the less popular and more feared she becomes. Meantime, “Galinda” is set to wed “Fiyero” (Jonathan Bailey), the dashing captain of the guards - only we and he know that his heart is set on another, and she is fairly green with envy! With the animals all fleeing as if it were “Narnia” on fire, the yellow brick road being more of a conduit to oppression than to freedom and the menacing flying monkeys enforcing the wizard’s will - what chance our feisty outcast can save the day and get her guy? The visuals are terrific, but the rest of it is positively mundane. We have to wait for virtually two hours for anything akin to a killer song like “No Good Deed” or “For Good” otherwise we are presented with some not especially creatively choreographed dance numbers set to songs that are definitely not from amongst Stephen Schwartz’s finest. It has half a dozen goes at ending, and really does string that process out for twenty minutes or so that I felt just prolonged the film for the sake of it. Erivo and Grande-Butera do both know how to sing and unlike so many power-balladeers they deliver with a sense of soul, not just one of “hey, listen to my impressive vocal range”, and with Bailey providing some eye-candy and the underused Goldblum helping to steal the scene on “Wonderful” this does have some saving graces, but maybe I’m just immune to the fuss about a story that I found really quite weak and over-stretched. It looks great on a big screen, and maybe there are some subliminal messages about modern day (American) governance and the values of friendship and loyalty, but I just didn’t love it.

A darker, more expansive sequel that, despite its visual spectacle and technical finesse, never matches the strength of the first. Performances feel diminished, pacing uneven, and the 3-hour runtime unnecessary. Impressive to look at, but ultimately middling. 5/10.