‘Wicked’ review: Decent movie adaptation doesn’t defy gravity without second half

nypost.com:

longer.Hollywood has, somewhat mystifyingly, taken a two-and-a-half-hour hit Broadway musical and — hey presto! — stretched it into two two-hour-40-minute movies in hopes of a duo of smashes.You’re acutely aware of the doubled runtime in the genial first chapter, “Wicked: Part One,” which has the same number of songs as Act 1 of composer Stephen Schwartz’s show, but an extra 60 minutes of padding.Onstage, the “Wizard of Oz” prequel, which depicts the cackling Wicked Witch of the West as a misunderstood activist teen before Dorothy and Toto arrive, is fun and fizzy.Despite the Broadway production’s expensive effects and lavish design, the show succeeds more as a sweet boarding school comedy about friendship than a grand Ozian adventure.

On-screen, however, director Jon M. Chu’s (“Crazy Rich Asians“) film tends to lumber along, becoming an unconvincing fantasy tale for 10 minutes or so before switching back to cozy musical mode.

For instance, the triumphant Act 1 finale, “Defying Gravity,” is broken up by an extended aerial chase scene and an exploding hot air balloon that causes an inferno.

The pursuit of the witch ends, and “ahhAHHaaaAHH!”Playing Elphaba, the burgeoning sorceress who’s bullied for her green skin color, Cynthia Erivo sings the ballad beautifully and powerfully — when Chu is not awkwardly interrupting it with too much business.The sublime voices of Erivo and Ariana Grande, as blond mean girl Galinda (later Glinda), set “Wicked” apart from the many movie-musicals that often shove aside good singing in favor of star power.