Who’s to say if Wicked’s second act has been changed for the better? Certainly not I, as I have never seen the hit Broadway musical. But I can say the end result is a messy conclusion that hits some of the right notes beneath a cacophony of misplaced ones.
Wicked: For Good brings us back where the first movie left off, with a hint that there has been a time-jump from the first movie—although it’s not clear exactly how many clock-ticks later we are in the story.
Glinda is now “Glinda the Good” as far as Oz propaganda is concerned, while Elphaba has finally earned her title of “The Wicked Witch of the West.” We get an early scene that I quite liked of Elphaba interrupting the paving of the yellow-brick road as Ozian guards abuse the animals helping to pull the machine. Clearly Elphaba is now embracing her role and is fighting the empire’s fascist tendencies.
Glinda, on the other hand, is accepting her fame at the expense of her friend, convincing herself that the people need a figure to look to to give them hope. She still privately worries about Elphaba, of course, and is uncomfortable with the propaganda, but believes that’s just the way things have shaken out.
She also still seems to believe Elphaba made the wrong choice and should have stayed to influence Oz from the inside, which we later see play out in the song “Wonderful” along Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard. The song eerily echoes modern truths about how, once certain lies have embedded themselves, people will go on believing them in the face of all contrary evidence.
It’s this dynamic—Elphaba trying to take down the empire while Glinda is torn between appearances and actions—where the movie soars most like the first act. Unfortunately, as people who are familiar with the stage version are aware, this act has the duty of tying in to The Wizard of Oz for better and for worse. There’s no way around tying into the original movie, given who these characters are and how the plot would need to proceed, but in a story so focused on propaganda, they could have taken much more liberty with how much of the classic story is “true” vs simply jingoistic embellishment.
Instead, director Jon M. Chu sticks fairly close to the script and does little to eschew the pacing and story issues of the original production. Numerous characters lack proper grounding or fleshing out for their motivations. That includes Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), Boq (Ethan Slater), and Nessa Rose (Marissa Bode). While their character motivations could work, the film does not do enough to really sell them, partially because of how much story it has to juggle.
Like the original, the movie is at its best when Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are on screen together, and both of them give performances just as good, if not better than the first film. They are only shackled by the plot, which is a real shame.
Michelle Yeoh is horribly miscast as Madame Morrible, and that miscasting is even worse here as Morrible unleashes her sinister self and gets more singing time to boot. Yeoh just doesn’t have the chops, at least in English, but it’s her acting that actually most bothered me. She has one or two line deliveries that work, but it only heightens how flat the rest of her delivery is.
None of the songs live up to “Defying Gravity,” including the two new songs, “The Girl in the Bubble” and “No Place Like Home.” I had predicted both songs to be nominated for Academy Awards, but honestly, neither song is very memorable, although “Bubble” has some interesting visuals with mirrors.
Erivo’s “No Good Deed” brings down the house sonically, but feels less tethered to the story beat it is founded on. The title song “For Good” is beautiful, but comes under strange circumstances.
Ironically, the major issue many people had with the first film—color grading and lighting—has been mostly improved in this half of the story. The production design and costumes remain outstanding and fun to watch on the big screen.
Despite these issues, Wicked: For Good remains worth seeing on the big screen, especially if you liked the first part, bringing closure to the stories of Glinda and Elphaba.
