And the defensiveness, is that a recent development?

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's top 50 films of 2024

#45 :  Wicked

The Wizard of Oz musical prequel is brought to the big screen with sugar-rush energy by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-Butera.

Skipping over Evil Does Not Exist (#47) which is an "enigmatic eco-parable" from Japan (I have to be in the mood for "enigmatic") brings us to another musical - this time, based on an actual musical! The rest of the family have all seen the musical at least once but it never appealed to me - but a family trip to the lovely Odyssey cinema roped me in to watch this, which is the first half of the story in film form. I have to say I'd have been fine without going to see it - but I also didn't massively fight against it, so at least part of me was happy enough to experience it. 

Film versions of musicals are tricky to do - when they work, they work well but when they don't they're a bit "what's the point?" Additionally, those of you that recognise the words "Cat Valentine" know my thoughts on Ariana Grande, but even I admit that I should probably get over it - and I reckon I will some time in the next ten years (spoiler alert - I won't). So how did this go?

You know what - this was actually pretty well done. I can't compare it to the stage show - and having seen this, I'm intrigued as to how it worked on stage because this is a very cinematic experience. For those of you that don't know, this is a prequel for The Wizard Of Oz which explains how The Wicked Witch Of The West became bad and it's pretty well written, feeling a lot less contrived than I was expecting.

Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba who becomes TWWOTW and, as you'd expect, she does an excellent job - the girl really some pipes on her, but her acting is also pretty decent, with this being a role that puts her through the wringer. Ariana Grande-Butera is Galinda who becomes Glinda The Good and she too does an excellent job with her acting being a lot better than I was expecting - the pair of them have quite the evolving relationship and they handle it well. 

Other cast members specifically deserving of a mention are Jonathan Bailey, who has to try and keep up with Cynthia and Ariana and he makes a decent fist of it and Peter DInklage, who has to be one of the best talking goats ever portrayed on screen. You also have to say that The Wizard Of Oz is a very Jeff Goldbumesque role - you don't get the impression it's too much of a stretch for him. 

The film looks absolutely fantastic - unsurprisingly, they've gone for a Wizard Of Oz feel and pulled it off very effectively. I don't really know what else to say about it - there's been a whole load of imagination gone into thinking about stuff and then a whole load of technical skill has gone into recreating it. It's all very impressive and I'd say the film's worth watching for the scenery alone. 

Wikipedia has a massive amount on the film (773 milliPeppers) most of which I didn't bother reading, but it does tell me there were considerably more cameos in there than the ones I noticed. The critics were mostly nice enough about it - although some did suggest it was longer than it needed to be, which I can understand, particularly given that this is only part one. Commercially, it did very well taking $750 million globally, which certainly isn't to be sneezed at. 

This is a very decent adaptation of a clever story - I enjoyed it a lot, especially considering how unfussed I was about going to see it. I'm quite surprised Empire didn't include it on their list and I suspect I'll be watching it again later this year before I go and see part two. It doesn't appear to be available to stream anywhere at the minute, but it can be rented in all the usual locations - if you've not seen it then there are far worse films that came out last year.

#47 - Not as great as it thinks it is
#43 - Worthy but dull

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