Wicked reviews praise Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande's 'breathtaking' roles

Wicked is almost in cinemas and critics have now had their say on Jon M Chu's adaptation of the beloved musical, who, for the most part, herald the film as stunning and awe-inspiring.

A prequel to and pseudo-retelling of The Wizard of Oz, Wicked tells the origin story of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) the future Wicked Witch of the West and how she comes to a place of acceptance and empowerment. It does so by focusing on her early years at Shiz University where she meets Galinda —future Glinda the Good Witch, Ariana Grande — and how their initial rivalry becomes a strong friendship.

The stage play has been split into two parts, with the first movie adapting the production up until its rip-roaring crescendo Defying Gravity. It sets the stage for what viewers know of The Wizard of Oz, revealing the origins of many beloved characters and teasing what is to come when Dorothy meets Elphaba herself.

Critics were effusive in their praise of the film with Yahoo Canada's Elisabetta Bianchini sharing that Wicked "makes the case for how a well-executed movie musical can be so magical". The critic added that Chu "uses every minute to his advantage" in adapting the first half of the play in a 165-minute runtime, so much so that viewers will "feel like you're the one who's been lifted off the ground and spun around in a twister".

Bianchini said what makes the film is the central performances from Erivo and Grande, saying of the former: "With the performance of each song you can sense that she's feeling each word deep down in her soul. Every moment with her oozes emotion and impact. It feels like a transformation where the actor is fully embodying this character in every way."

The critic went on: "For all the depth and honesty we get from Erivo, Grande's conceited and sassy attitude as Glinda is spot on."

The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney felt similarly about the film's successes, writing: "Producers have been in no rush to bring the goldmine property to the screen, and their patience now pays off handsomely in Jon M. Chu’s eye-popping movie version, which enriches the source material while saluting the Golden Age of Technicolor MGM musicals, chief among them The Wizard of Oz."

While Rooney acknowledged that some might feel the stage play has an "overstuffed narrative, the film's increased length helps even out the edges: "The screen expansion gives the material more breathing room, yielding rewards especially in terms of intimate character access and poignancy."

But what stood out most to Rooney was Grande and Erivo, whose "vocals are clear and strong and supple". He said that Erivo in particular "does her best screen work to date, making Elphaba the bruised, beating heart of the film with a performance of breathtaking raw vulnerability and emotional shading".

For The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw the movie actually "made a cleaner, sharper, cartoonier kind of sense" than the stage version, with the critic describing the film as "a sugar-rush fantasy with the overpowering star presence of Cynthia Erivo".

"The sledgehammer punch is delivered by Erivo as the wounded, angry, alienated Elphaba," Bradshaw adds. "In Sunset Boulevard, Norma Desmond famously said that the movies once only needed faces – and Erivo’s face is the ground zero of this film’s blast of entertainment power. She is the film’s Rushmore: charismatic, haughty and vulnerable. Her face exerts a planetary pull on everything else on screen and an impossible thing to look away from."

People's Eric Andersson gave Grande the most praise of the pair after remarking that "the success of Wicked relies on the chemistry between its two leads", saying of the pop star: "In the showier role as the perky, plucky Glinda, [she] owns the movie with her hair flips and humorous hubris."

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The critic added: "Erivo's shining moment comes in the film's finale, when she soars (literally and figuratively) while delivering a powerful rendition of the inspirational Defying Gravity."

Not everyone loved the movie, though, as The Standard's Nick Curtis criticised the film's length and stuffed narrative as its main flaw. Curtis wrote: "When Erivo or Grande hit yet another sustained high note, I imagine even the superfans wish they’d get a move on."

Even so, the critic said: "It’s a visually ravishing, emotionally freighted vehicle for the prodigious vocal and considerable acting talents of Cynthia Erivo as the shunned, green-skinned Elphaba and Ariana Grande as the vacuously beautiful Galinda/Glinda."

The Telegraph's Robbie Collin was also unamused by the film, which he described as "hopelessly miscast" and "exhausting" because "there is no conceivable artistic argument" for it to be split into two parts with the first half running longer than the original stage play.

"This smacks of bloat for bloat’s sake, reminiscent of Peter Jackson’s mindlessly overextended Hobbit trilogy, full of scenes in which almost nothing happens with maximum fuss," Collin wrote.

He also decried the work of Erivo and Grande, writing that the former "certainly has the pipes required, but she plays the character with a wet-eyed severity that lends a grim medicinal quality to the film’s more emotional passages".

While for Grande "the voice fits, and she gamely throws herself at the vain hair-tosses and other recurring bits of comic business. But she also lacks the manic stage-school brittleness the role demands."

Wicked premieres in UK cinemas on Friday, 22 November.