Director Jonathan M. Chu
Runtime 2h 17
The Good
- I cannot fault the performances of Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande or Jonathan Bailey. They are what make this movie and why it works.
- I love how this story interweaves with The Wizard of Oz, that it makes nods to the story without just simply retelling it as it would have been so easy to do.
The Bad
- Michelle Yeoh can play a glorious bad guy. We have Star Trek: Discovery to attest to this. Michelle Yeoh is an Oscar winning actress. And yet, this was very much a lacklustre performance unworthy of the reputation that precedes her. Not only that, she most certainly didn’t look like she was having fun.
The Ugly
- My biggest issue is that this film covers everything after the intermission in the play. It’s about 40 minutes of play script stretched over the 2 hour+ runtime. I personally would have stopped the first film before they go to Oz however, I also understand why there was want to end on a big number (Defying Gravity).
- The result is a second film that feels mostly filler (yes, I sang that in the style of Willow from Buffy) for what is essentially the last remaining ‘big number’.
- I suspect, years down the line, someone will edit this all down to one 2-hour film. I think that’s will be the next time I watch this. For me it suffers the same fate as The Hobbit: they both overshot with their desire for an ‘ology’.
Final Thoughs
A visually stunning film that will keep die-hard fans happy. Alas, for me this second outing was a little too rich, too bloated and really wanting a stand alone.
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