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I guess Evil always relied on the Rob Marshall treatment, complete with a capable ensemble hiding behind flashy CGI and sophisticated creative choices that continually get in their own way. Without Ariana Grande, I don’t know where this movie would be. The two-part decision spreads it too thin, and it suffers from being simply far too long for so little momentum in the last 30 minutes.

Grande brings moments of genuine inspiration to the film, her singing aspires to the spine-tingling power of the Disney Renaissance and her acting perfectly suited to Glinda’s breezy pomp and unbridled charisma. Cynthia Erivo is perfectly fine, but trying to channel what Idina Menzel brought to the role was never going to be impossible for anyone. Jonathan Bailey was a pleasant surprise, even if he doesn’t have much to do. Jeff Goldblum thrives, even if he’s not a born singer. The cast does their job; It’s not their fault that this doesn’t quite work.

Somehow Chu is the weak link in a way I couldn’t have predicted after he did such inspired work In the heights. The musical numbers disappear behind the flashy production design and are staged like a Disney Channel original film. It honestly reminded me of Guy Ritchie trying Aladdinand that’s a step down from how well Chu did in his last musical adaptation. The film’s pace is glacial, the actual musical fizzes with energy, and the biggest song, “Defying Gravity,” occasionally falters, except when Erivo and Grande handle the shoddy staging and setting and Chu mines those melodramatic choral notes from the source material . There’s a redeeming force in one of the final shots that really convinces you what works in the final sequence, but then it inexplicably goes on and undermines itself with more CGI nonsense. That’s kind of a sad summary of the whole thing. Just as the film begins to find its footing, the ladder is thrown away at its own request. It’s self-defeating curiosity.

There were moments where I was really taken with what Chu was up to, and there were others where I just gave up on getting involved because it was so corporate and the whole production fell flat. Sometimes it’s littered with bad pictures, full of 2020 Dolittle-like talking animal effects that made me laugh (in a bad way) and slowed the story down to live up to the billing of being a clunky first half of a succinct Broadway show. The strikingly poor graphics would have ruined even a single film of it, but at least it would have felt vivid.

I’m sure this will go down well at the Oscars, and the love for Grande in particular will be well-deserved. She is excellent and the role is truly hers now. However, this could have been a direct hit. As it is, it’s just…fine. It’s not bad, but it’s deeply frustrating to imagine what could have happened with a more cautious approach.