Two big-budget movies hit theaters: NPR

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in Evil.

Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

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Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

Some moviegoers are already referring to Gladiator II and Evil like this year Barbenheimer — I believe Liked it is the chosen portmanteau. We will have to see if the comparison holds up. Both of these opulent glasses are set to become smash hits, but unlike them Barbie and Oppenheimerthey are essentially known quantities, rooted in stories and characters that the audience knows well.

Evil was adapted from the long-running Broadway musical, which itself was inspired by Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel. But you should know going in that this two-hour-and-40-minute movie is just Part Iand there will be a year’s break before Part II.

The director Jon M. Chu, of In the Heights and Crazy rich Asianstakes a gleaming maximalist approach to this origin story for The Wicked Witch of the West, the villain so memorably played by Margaret Hamilton in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. In this tale, the witch is Elphaba, and as played by a quietly commanding Cynthia Erivo, she is brave, brilliant, and seriously misunderstood, largely because of her green skin.

Much of the film takes place at a wizarding school, basically Hogwarts with Munchkins, where Elphaba impresses the powerful headmistress – an imperious Michelle Yeoh. It is here that Elphaba becomes rivals with a smug queen bee named Galinda, the future Good Witch of the North. She is played with delightful comic brio by pop superstar Ariana Grande. But over time, the two become true friends, and Galinda decides to give Elphaba a makeover.

Evil handles the boarding school comedy with a pleasantly light touch. There’s also the hint of a romantic triangle involving a handsome prince – a very good Jonathan Bailey – which, like many things here, foreshadows the future The Wizard of Oz developments. Eventually we get Jeff Goldblum, nicely cast as the wizard himself, who turns out to be less wonderful than he seems. This sets the stage for Elphaba to harness her full magical power and become Oz’s public enemy no. 1.

Wicked: Part I builds to a silliness of a gravity-defying Emerald City climax, but much of the film is too tame, too obvious, and frankly too digitally slick to spell. I hate to say this about a movie that teaches us not to judge based on looks, but I wish I did Evil looked better.

Acacius (Pedro Pascal) and Lucius (Paul Mescal) fight in Gladiator II.

Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures

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Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures

Where Oz has winged monkeys, ancient Rome has confused baboons. Early in Gladiator IILucius, a warrior played by Paul Mescal, must prove his mettle by defeating a very terrifying simian in the Colosseum arena.

Sixteen years have passed since the events of the first Gladiatorand like the film’s slain hero, Maximus, indelibly played by Russell Crowe, Lucius is a prisoner, scarred by personal tragedy and bent on revenge. However, his hatred is not directed at just one person; Lucius wants to burn the entire rotten empire to the ground.

Director Ridley Scott is reunited with some of his key collaborators from the first film, including actress Connie Nielsen, who makes a regal return as Lucilla, daughter of Marcus Aurelius. Most of the cast is new, though: Pedro Pascal plays a formidable general with whom Lucius has a party to speak to, while Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger romp up a storm as a pair of twin brother tyrants driving Rome to ruin. And Denzel Washington, unsurprisingly, gets the juiciest role as Macrinus, a cunning and somewhat inscrutable slave owner who sends Lucius into the arena.

It’s fun to watch Washington go over-the-top, but his scene-stealing is typical of Gladiator II as a whole; it’s a lot of flash, for very little purpose. Mescal, best known for his sensitive, melancholic work in the series Normal people and movies like Aftersungives an intense physical performance, but his Lucius never claims your sympathies as commandingly as Maximus did. And when the characters begin to laboriously talk about the downfall of Rome and the hope of a glorious rebirth, the film quickly loses steam; it’s like watching an extended WWE smackdown suddenly interrupted by a social studies lesson.

Still, the smackdown itself is pretty satisfying. IN Gladiator II’s wildest action sequence, the Colosseum arena becomes a giant saltwater tank, complete with dueling warships and bloodthirsty sharks. It’s a completely outlandish spectacle, but Scott, now 86, isn’t sweating the logistics. The first one Gladiator asked, “Aren’t you amused?” And in these moments, at least, we are.