Greetings everyone and welcome to a brand new movie review! For this one, I am going to be looking at the follow up to one of the biggest sensations of last year, which was Wicked. The adaptation of the immensely popular stage play ended up being a huge pop cultural moment in its own right, not only pleasing hardcore fans who had been eagerly anticipating a film version, but also gaining new fans who who may have only had a surface level awareness of the story. I myself fell squarely in the latter camp as I knew very little about the show beyond the basics of it serving as a take on The Wizard of Oz story where the Wicked Witch is portrayed as a tragic figure. However, I was very impressed by the movie as I found it to be a very entertaining musical with spectacular performances, impressive craftsmanship, and a story that resonated with me a lot more than I expected. Given how that film ended, I became immediately stoked to see what would happen in the second part, based off of the play’s second act. I had heard mixed things on this segment, with some praising it as an even better told story than the first half and other saying it is substantially weaker. With split reactions like this, I was very curious to see where I would fall as far as this movie goes. Which end of the spectrum did I land on? Let’s jump right in and see what the end of this yellow brick road has to offer!
Taking place some time after the events of the first one, where Elphaba Thropp defied The Wizard of Oz, figuring out that he is a fraud, and is now out on her own fighting for the rights of the animal population of Oz. She has now been framed as “The Wicked Witch of the West” by Madame Morrible, while Glinda has now been positioned as the Wizard’s spokesperson whose job it is to keep the people at peace. While being married to Fiyero, who is now Captain of the Wizard’s Gale Force, a confrontation with Elphaba causes much distraught in the land, much to her frustrations as she tries to speak out the truth. Now, she must try and stop the Wizard from enacting any more harm or lies which leads to many complications between her and those once closest to her.
With how polarizing the second act of Wicked seems to be, I was curious as to how much this film take from it and perhaps if it would try to improve upon some of the issues that people may have had with how it was originally told. Now having seen the film… it does seem like this was pretty faithful for better and worse. It’s an odd one to look at from a plot perspective as there really isn’t much of a structure to it. We mostly just go from one situation to the next, with the movie essentially playing like one big epilogue that concludes the character journeys while also showing how this story connects to the Wizard of Oz. I got the sense that the writers of the original story didn’t quite know what this portion would entail and may have struggled to come up structure that fit what they wanted to achieve here and the final product ends up feeling very uneven from this perspective, especially when compared to the first part, which felt a lot more confident and disciplined by having a clear focus and developing everything properly. However, it is a credit to director, Jon M. Chu, and writers, Dana Fox and Winnie Holtzman, that this movie still managed to work for me. Despite how this film is paced, most of what we get is still very compelling and manages to resonate greatly from an emotional standpoint. There are plenty of well written scenes where characters confront one another and express what is going on their mind (very theatre like in this regard, which is appropriate) and I did feel we got to see many them experience a substantial amount of growth, which prevented this chapter from feeling superfluous in any way.
I think the connections, while had me raising some questions (like people say, it is much better to think of this as “fan fiction” than something directly in line with the story) to the Wizard of Oz story were interesting and often surprising in how certain character backstories play out. I also appreciated how this movie continues the messaging of the first, getting to expand more on the themes of propaganda and how the spread of misinformation and the danger of making people believe in something that isn’t true. We see how this informs many of character’s decisions, whether they are on the side of right or wrong and it a very clever way of turning the original story on its head. Like a lot of sequels, this takes the optimistic wish fulfillment ideals of the original and deconstructs it, by going in a darker direction and playing out in a way that serves as a realistic continuation while still never losing sight of what made the first click. I found the finale to be especially effective as it ends on a note that I found very lovely and satisfying from a character point of view, to the point where despite the film’s issues, it all weirdly fell into place anyway.
One aspect that has been praised in regards to the first Wicked movie is how it felt like old school Hollywood magic as far being a big splashy musical with massive practical sets being utilized in order to bring this world to life. M. Chu makes sure to maintain that with this follow up. All the sets and costumes have an immense amount of detail put into them to make the world feel very lived in and is a visually appealing update to the land of Oz. One can nit pick the color grading in some shots and whether Chu could’ve brought more of In the Heights visual flavoring to these movies, however I feel like these movies work well on a cinematography level and I think For Good even furthers this in some respects. There are some truly dazzling moments that are beautiful to look at and the use of colors and lighting in certain sequences, particularly during some of the musical numbers (more on those in a bit) are able to get across a lot in regards to character emotions and meaning. Chu is also great about not letting all the fantasy and spectacle distract from the characters, really focusing on them throughout it all and hone in on the performances more than anything with an excellent use of proxemics in order to make one closer with the characters and establish the different relationships at play. The digital effects look strong with the various CGI animals being very expressive and looking convincing alongside the various human elements while the VFX work is able to mesh well with the immense amount of practical work used. The make up is also exceptional with the pain staking work to make characters like Elpahaba and the Tin Man into living breathing characters without making them look ridiculous being very commendable.
Considering the darker nature of the story, the musical numbers this time around aren’t quite as splashy and fun as what we got in Part One. On the whole, they are much slower, and focused on character above all with not as much in the way of complex choreography. This is not a criticism as I think Chu is still able to use the connection the audience has with these characters in order to make these scenes engaging and there’s still plenty of hard hitting imagery and shots that do make these numbers worthwhile. As far as the songs, I can’t say there is one that is as catchy as a “Defying Gravity”, a “Popular”, or a “Dancing Through Life”, but I think most of them get the job done here. “Every Day More Wicked” and “Thank Goodness/I Couldn’t Be Happier” do a solid job in setting up the new status quo with the latter being an effective way of getting us into Glinda’s headspace and her complicated feelings towards her position in life at the moment. Same goes for “Girl in the Bubble”, one of the big new songs made for the movie, which is an excellent showcase of Ariana Grande’s singing chops and is a lovely song that serves to emphasize a big turning point in Glinda’s arc and I think it enhances her whole arc even more. The other notable new song, sung by Cynthia Erivo, “No Place Like Home”, isn’t quite as memorable but it serves its purpose in conveying why Elphaba does what she does and fights for a land that has mostly not given back to her. “Wonderful” stands as my favorite sequence as the actors are clearly enjoying themselves here and its a song that greatly works in getting across the kind of person Oscar is, while demonstrating his tactics in a way that makes one understand people falling for his charms. “As Long as Your Mine” is a powerful love ballet that strongly sells the bond Elphaba and Fiyero have for one another (in no small part thanks to the two performers), while “No Good Deed” is a great show stopper than is able to get across the rage and fear Elpahaba is feeling in that moment and carries some powerful images as well. My favorite of the bunch is the one the film’s title is based off of, “For Good”, as it is a beautiful piece where the lyrics just come off like poetry and Grande and Erivo give a duet for the ages, one that had me tearing up.
Speaking of that duo, I am unsurprised that they end up being spectacular here once again. Ever since I saw Erivo belting out “Can’t Hurry Love” like no other in Bad Times at the El Royale, she became someone who I made sure to keep an eye on. As Elphaba she is able to juggle a personality that contain many facets, which is doubly true here in this new film where she has become substantially more world weary. Erivo gives her a sense of warmth and kindness that makes her easy to root for, while also leaning more into the fiery passion that is inside of her as she vows to expose the Wizard and make Oz into the Place she thought it was, despite seemingly everything being against her. She of course shows off her incredible pipes during the numbers and she is able to command the screen where the growth she has had since the events of the first film becomes more apparent. However, as well developed Elphaba is, it is Glinda who arguably ends up being the most fully rounded one in this installment with her now reckoning with being essentially a pawn in the Wizard’s propaganda parade and facing the dilemma of fulfilling this role or actually supporting the truest friend she’s ever had. Grande is up to the difficult task of hiding her inner turmoil beneath happy mirage that pretends everything going right when deep down she knows it isn’t. She does the “sad face under a happy mask” role like a natural and she get so many powerful moments to showcase her talent as someone reconciling with who she is and how she can be a better person. It is a redemption arc that feels earned and is perfectly presented in the film and Glinda’s dynamic with Elphaba is one that is compelling due to the two actresses giving great performances and cause with the context of the first film, it is tragic seeing them on different sides, with Glinda deep down wanting for things to be how they were beforehand.
As far as the returning characters from Part One, some are given more substance to chew on while others do end up feeling a tad sidelined. Jonathan Bailey does a strong job in playing a more mature Fiyero, someone who is more serious in terms of dealing with matters and has actually found purpose thanks to his budding romance with Elphaba. Even though his screentime isn’t as much as before, I do think Bailey is able to get across a lot of what Fiyero really feels to the point where certain decisions are made they make total sense combined with what happened in the original. Plus his chemistry with Erivo works really well to the point where I would’ve liked more interactions between them. Jeff Goldblum is also terrific as he is able to put on a convincing facade of charisma as Oz, perfectly portraying a conniving conman who lies and manipulates his way to power and the despicable nature of his character isn’t apparent through words but by his actions. I even appreciate the depth he is given with Goldblum being able to get slight bits of humanity into his performance with one moment at the end making me feel a bit for me, but also not making me forgive him for all that he has done.
I also thought Marissa Bode did an excellent job in making Nessarose into a more complex individual as she is now governor of Munchkinland and left with resentment over the neglection she feels from her sister. Bode is able to balance making the audience feel sympathy for her, but also is able to present plenty of red flags in her relationship with Boq (played once again by Ethan Slater), which ends up being messy and tragic. Definitely understand where she comes from in finding out that the love of her life doesn’t actually love her back, but she takes things to the extreme in a way that builds on themes of the dangers of yearning to stary in the past too much and that things can’t go back to the way they once were. Slater is also terrific as he also is able to excel at making me feel many different things toward him and his turn towards vengeance is able to make sense (he gets one really memorable scene that really gives him a chance to showcase his anger that I can see being memed a lot). I do wish he didn’t get sidelined in the latter half of the feature as I do have… quite a few questions as to what he was up to and where things ended up for him. Same for Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible, as Yeoh is appropriately cold hearted and is able to convey a lot of menace, but the character’s power level is noticeably inconsistent and she really isn’t given as much to do here beyond one big plot turn.
All in all, I thought Wicked: For Good was a satisfying conclusion to this epic two part story. While maybe not as spectacular as I thought it might’ve been based off of the trailers, as the story structure is uneven with it feeling like there isn’t much of a firm plot, and certain aspects and characters could’ve been developed further. But, it oddly manage to work regardless thanks to the emotions hitting hard, the themes being relevant and interesting, the visuals and cinematography being very well done, the songs working the context of the movie, there being some very compelling character stuff, and the performances being spectacular once again. Fans of the stage play will likely both enjoy this if they’ve seen the play while also understandably likely to be more critical of this as an adaptation. If one is expecting this to be just like the original, well then there may be some disappointment, but if one is looking for a nice ending to this story, I think this very much succeeds. It has been quite a ride getting into the Wicked story with these two movies, to the point where I even read Gregory Maguire’s original book (very good, but WAY darker than what it inspired). I’ve very much enjoyed all of my exposure to this IP and hope to one day see the stage play in order to see just how well these films adapted it. As it is, I am happy that these movies turned me into a fan… for good!
Rating: A-
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