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Do you like your “Wicked” sweet or sour?

How you answer may be the key in how much you enjoy the sequel, “Wicked: For Good,” which opens today and is on track to sell more tickets in its first weekend than its predecessor.

Will the new movie once again cast a spell at the Oscars? The answer, for the moment, is confusifying.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope newsletter and someone hoping to see a movie at the Village before the Olympics land in L.A. in 2028. Which film should they book to kick off its revival?

‘Wicked’ can’t defy gravity this time

Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande perform at the 97th Academy Awards in March.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Who wasn’t charmed by the first “Wicked” movie last year? Film critics gave it more than a pass, with reviews scoring a respectable 73 grade on aggregator site Metacritic. Audiences loved it, powering the film to a $758 million worldwide box office haul. And Oscar voters fell in line, rewarding “Wicked” with 10 nominations and wins for production design and costumes. Gratitution abounded.

Repeating success is a taller order, our beloved Dodgers notwithstanding. As noted, multiplexes should be full this first weekend and, you’d expect, the lucrative Thanksgiving weekend as well. But the reviews haven’t been as kind this time around. “Wicked: For Good” sits at a 60 on Metacritic. Empire magazine’s review sums up the sentiment: “‘Wicked: For Good,’ sure — but not quite Wicked: For Great.”

Sequels rarely land as well as the original film, so the drop-off isn’t surprising. And, if you’ve seen the Broadway musical, you already knew this was coming. All the best songs are packed into the show’s first act, culminating in the soaring, sustaining final notes of “Defying Gravity.” But you can only beat that gravitational force for so long before you fall flat on the ground.

That splat you hear is “Wicked: For Good.”

Not everyone feels that way. The Vulture review sports the grabby headline: “‘Wicked: For Good’ is actually better than the first.” Times film critic Amy Nicholson agrees in her write-up titled: “The first one was a candy-colored slog, but ‘Wicked: For Good’ is pleasantly sour.”

Which brings me back to the question I first asked you: What are you looking for in a “Wicked” movie? I enjoyed all the spirited dancing and singing and, yes, the bright, candy colors of the first movie. You want a slog? The sequel takes almost an hour to bring together the two characters you truly care about — Elphaba and Glinda.

To get to that moment, you have endure a lot of filler, as if the musical doesn’t have enough material to sustain two movies totaling nearly five hours. (It doesn’t.)

The so-so critical reaction shouldn’t keep “Wicked: For Good” from picking up a best picture nomination, provided the movie’s fans keep showing up at theaters through the end of the year. With so many high-profile festival films — “The Smashing Machine,” “After the Hunt,” “Die My Love” among them — failing to connect with audiences and critics, there’s room at the inn. Academy voters will likely keep the light on.

Equaling the first film’s 10 nominations will be difficult. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande opened the Oscars ceremony last year in spectacular fashion, but a reunion might not be in the cards. The pair were arguably co-leads in the first movie. “For Good” belongs more to Glinda than Elphaba, charting the Good Witch’s journey from complacency and compliance to … less complacency and compliance. Maybe Glinda’s going to learn from all this and take principled stands moving forward, though the movie doesn’t do enough to convince me. Grande’s dimple has more depth.

Still, Grande figures to score another supporting actress nomination and, who knows, she may well win. Voters love big theater-kid energy in this category, giving Oscars to Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”), Anne Hathaway (“Les Misérables”), Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”) and Zoe Saldaña (“Emilia Pérez”) in recent years.

Erivo, placed in the more competitive lead class, might not be as fortunate, as she no longer centers the movie. She still masterfully conveys Elphaba’s vulnerability and sadness, but she’s also saddled with a chemistry-free love story with Capt. Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey). I won’t count her out. But Erivo could well lead the “snubs” and surprises list come nominations morning.

Repeat nominations in production design and costume design, the two Oscars the first movie won, seem safe bets. Hair and makeup does too, as does sound since voters love movies heavy on music. “Wicked: For Good” might pick up another nomination in the newly created casting category, as it won’t be a spot where voters feel like they’re repeating themselves. And while the first movie didn’t have any new songs, “For Good” sports two. Look for “The Girl in the Bubble,” sung by Grande, to pop.

Eight nominations? That’d be a win. The loss would be if “Wicked: For Good” followed the path of the two “Black Panther” movies. The first, a critical, commercial and cultural sensation, earned seven nominations, including best picture, and won three Oscars. The less-regarded sequel picked up five nods, winning one. It was not nominated for best picture.

Sometimes being popular isn’t enough.

Read more coverage of ‘Wicked’

PREDATOR: BADLANDS

(12A) 107mins

★★★☆☆

WHAT happens when the hunter becomes the hunted? That’s the question in this latest outing for the marauding monster franchise.

And for the first time it’s a Predator and not a person who is our protagonist.

This fundamental plot twist takes the action into pure sci-fi territory, too.

While Badlands still has a cat-and-mouse chase at its core, director Dan Trachtenberg disposes of the previous man versus masked extraterrestrials that glued together all predecessors.

And not a single human lifeform features in this script.

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Forget Predator’s 1980s roots, which saw Arnold Schwarzenegger battling other-worldly beings in the jungle.

Decent curveball

Here an epic 22-minute opening explainer sees our lead Predator — young Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) — witness the murder of his brother Kwei by their Yautja father.

Cast out from his clan he takes flight to a far-flung planet with the intention of hunting down and slaying the gigantic apex hunter known as the Kalisk.

As well as this mutinous adversary, poisonous plants that can paralyse and lethal grass made of razor blades, here Dek also encounters Thia (Elle Fanning) — a Weyland-Yutani android left hanging from a tree after the Kalisk cut off her legs.

This becomes Dek’s cyborg-in-crime as they help each other across the Badlands with the aim of taking out their mutual target.

Thia’s spoken sentences after an awful lot of subtitled (uncannily Dutch-sounding) Yautja language are a welcome relief.

There’s an unexpected amount of humour too, mostly centred on an additional cute critter travelling companion called Bud.

But amusing segues aside, the idea that everyone is doggedly hunting something does still stand.

The Kalisk and Thia’s evil android twin Tessa are intent on trying to capture Dek, which enables all the heavyweight stand-off set pieces you could hope for.

The graphics are consistently excellent and there’s a decent curveball at the end to leave the door to the next instalment open.

Predator fans may feel dissatisfied by just how far-removed Badlands has travelled from the original.

But doing so does pave the way for some unadulterated futuristic action that can be enjoyed entirely on its own merits, and by a whole new audience.

ANEMONE

(15) 126 mins

★★☆☆☆

DANIEL DAY-LEWIS makes his big-screen return after seven years in this movie directed by his son Ronan.

On paper, that reunion sounds moving. In practice, the film feels heavy, distant and difficult to connect with.

It’s set in the late 1980s on a grey northern coast, and the movie commits fully to that gloom, as every scene reminds of the weight of past burdens the characters still carry.

Day-Lewis plays Ray, a recluse who has cut himself off from almost everyone.

His estranged brother (Sean Bean), seeks to bridge the gap, bringing with him long-buried resentment and unfinished conversations.

The performances themselves are strong, especially from Day-Lewis, who can still command a screen with the smallest gesture.

But the script – written by the actor and his director son – rarely gives the audience room to breathe.

Silence stretches on, metaphors pile up, and the film’s symbolism grows so thick it begins to feel jarring.

There are flashes of genius – a confrontation here, a quiet confession there – but the slow, sombre bits in between offer little or no reward.

The film wants to be profound about pain passed between generations, yet its emotional impact gets lost in its own seriousness.

LINDA MARRIC

THE CHORAL

(12A) 113mins

★★★★☆

YORKSHIRE royalty, writer Alan Bennett, is the recognisable voice behind the script of this feelgood World War One drama.

Set in his native God’s Own Country and with a stunning scenic backdrop, the movie is laced with Bennett’s trademark dry comedy and explores the hope and the horror of wartime Britain through the members of a local community choir.

Ralph Fiennes – superb as choirmaster Dr Guthrie – is brought in to help raise the roof for the ensemble’s annual performance.

Here he heads up a comforting cast of acting heavyweights including Mill owner Duxbury (Roger Allum), pianist Horner (Robert Emms) and Simon Russell Beale as the composer Elgar.

Initially regarded with suspicion thanks to pre-war years spent living in Germany and his fondness for reading naval pages (aka relationships with men) Dr Guthrie soon galvanises his motley mixed generational gang of voices, all dealing in their own way with consequences of war.

Lofty (Oliver Briscombe) and cheeky-chappy pal Ellis (Taylor Uttley) are about to be conscripted, others are grieving those who will not return.

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LAURA STOTT

THERE are plenty of quirky places in the US, but did you know that one state has its very own miniature England?

It even has its own piece of the capital there as the original London Bridge was bought and reconstructed over the Bridgewater Channel Canal in Arizona.

You’ll find all this in Lake Havasu City three hours outside of Phoenix, where there’s a miniature England, and it’s literally called ‘The English Village’.

The resort was built when the actual London Bridge was brought over from the UK.

Back in the 1830s, London Bridge was constructed in the UK. But years later in the 1960s, it was deemed unsuitable for modern traffic.

In 1968, London Bridge was bought by American entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch.

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He had the exterior granite blocks from the original bridge cut and transported to the United States to construct a new bridge in Lake Havasu.

Robert was actually the founder or Lake Havasu City, and its English village tourist attraction was built in 1971 – to coincide with the instillation of London Bridge.

It wasn’t just the original bridge that made it across the water. Vintage lamps on the bridge are made from the melted-down cannons of Napoleon Bonaparte’s army.

The bridge has been used for movies too like Bridge Across Time also known as Terror at London Bridge, and Day of the Wolves.

The English Village was built like a Hollywood set with pretty shop fronts, all made to look quintessentially English.

The village even has a vintage gate from an English castle, and there are red telephone boxes scattered about.

In the middle is a fountain which is surrounded by four lion statues which strikes a resemblance to the one you’ll find in Trafalgar Square.

It was anchored by Hog in Armour Pub and City of London Arms Restaurant and a cinema was later added – but sadly these have since changed.

One restaurant there today is The Chair which looks out at London Bridge and the village’s fountain which serves the British classic, fish and chips.

There’s also a pizza restaurant called Papa Leone’s Pizza as well as an ice cream parlour and fish and chip shop under London Bridge.

With average summer highs of 33C in Arizona, there’s plenty of outdoor seating and lots of boat tours along the canal.

On Tripadvisor, one visitor wrote: “It’s iconic, it’s London Bridge. A great job has been done in integrating a piece of England into the desert 5000 miles away, in it is almost seamless.”

Another commented “Authentic fish and chips offered at a nearby restaurant and a bit of English kitsch”.

At Christmas, the area around London Bridge, including The English Village, is decorated for Christmas.

The area is lit up for the yearly Festival of Lights with one of the main events being the Holiday Boat Parade of Lights which takes place on the water under the bridge.

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