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This article contains spoilers for Wicked: For Good.
Wicked has taken the world by storm since the first film's release a year ago. The stage show has been around since the early 2000s, but the John M. Chu films have brought an entirely new fanbase to the musical. Wicked: For Good may be packed to the brim with crazy plots and subpar music, but it’s hard not to be enamored by the entire world surrounding the two films and its grand finale.
The Second Act is Too Messy
It’s pretty well known that the first act of Wicked is the better half of the musical. So much happens within the 60-minute second act of the stage show that even splitting up the film into two parts running over two hours couldn’t save the pacing. The first half is a bubbly backstory of Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), while the second half is a much darker and harsher story. The lack of time in the stage show definitely transfers into the film. Although Wicked: For Good extends the original runtime by about an hour and 15 minutes, the story is still jam-packed and overwhelming.
The film expands on plots that didn’t really need to be expanded on. Glinda is already the main character, so giving her another song, “The Girl in the Bubble,” was unnecessary and told us everything the audience already knew about how she was feeling. The most shocking part of the film was the transformation of Boq (Ethan Slater) and Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) into the Tin Man and Scarecrow. Both characters handle their transformations in different ways, and it would have been so much more interesting to delve deeper into their feelings during the film rather than reiterating Glinda’s same feelings over and over again.
The Acting Was (Almost) Wonderful
The highlight of the film was the main cast's acting. Both Grande and Erivo give outstanding performances the entire time; it was shocking how engrossed I felt by their emotion. Grande does an amazing job at putting on a facade in front of the Ozians, making it feel like two different performances in one. Both actors shine during the fight that they have after the house falls on Nessrose (Marissa Bode). It’s so charming and makes for such an entertaining scene. In a film full of intense imagery, their performances bring a fresh breath of air. Although neither Grande nor Erivo won an Oscar for their performances in the first film, I hope to see them win for this one.
The other cast doesn’t get as much time to show off, but they were also outstanding. Bode and Slater gave chilling performances of Boq and Nessa as their relationship deteriorated. Although Colman Domingo had very few lines as the Cowardly Lion, he added an extra oomph to the character that was never there. Bailey expresses so much emotion just through his eyes, you could feel Fiyero’s pain just but the tilt of his eyebrow. Each actor gave a new perspective on all of the characters we know and love from the original The Wizard of Oz film; it was very impressive.
In my review of the first Wicked film last year, I mentioned how Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum's performances were a little underwhelming. I feel exactly the same in this film. Both actors are incredible, but they gave such dull performances. Yeoh’s Madame Morrible was very one-note in this film, not showing much emotion over minor annoyance. There was no real passion behind the execution of her lines. I love her performances in other films like Everything Everywhere All At Once—which led to her Best Actress win at the Oscars—but this felt so unlike her other performances; it was unfortunate. Goldblum also gives a pretty dull performance. Goldblum himself is a silly and eccentric guy, making it easy to capture that essence on camera, but that’s all he seems to do in the film. The Wizard doesn’t seem to do much in this film other than pace and stammer a lot. It just felt like Goldblum in a green jacket, and there should have been a better execution for the character.
The performance of “Wonderful” does stick in my mind quite a bit. At one point in the song, The Wizard takes a globe of Oz into his hand and recreates the iconic scene from Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator, where Chaplin’s character Hinkel does the same thing once he realizes he actually can take over the world. It’s such a perfect metaphor for the film, but it gets lost in the whimsical way Goldblum portrays The Wizard. He’s supposed to be the “all-powerful” leader, but instead he’s seen as goofy and unserious, making it harder to understand how scary the amount of power he has is.
A Musical with Mediocre Music
The music in the film is pretty disappointing. Most songs on the soundtrack are just reprises of the first film, making them feel unoriginal and dull. There are some good songs on the soundtrack, but when a film is being advertised as a musical and the songs are just reworks from the first film, it’s hard to praise it. “No Place Like Home,” “No Good Deed,” and “For Good” are the only real standouts from the film.
Besides the previously mentioned “The Girl in the Bubble,” “No Place Like Home” is also an original song in the film. This song was surprisingly my favorite. Erivo is very good at singing with strong emotion that it felt like she really was singing to a group of talking animals. The title of the song is a nod towards the original Wizard of Oz and plays off the iconic phrase “there’s no place like home” with a new perspective of the talking animals of Oz being forced out of their homes. It was a great addition to the soundtrack and the stage production is really lacking without it.
A Wickedly Wild Time
The past two years of Wicked content have been so entertaining that it’s hard to completely dislike Wicked: For Good, but the first film is much stronger than this one. The plot is messy, some performances are bland, and the music is a downgrade from the first film, but the acting and intensity of the film make up for it. In the same way pink is synonymous with 2023 due to Barbie, pink and green are the defining colors of 2024 and 2025 because of the impact Wicked has made on the film industry.
Sources: IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, Wicked, IMDb, IMDb, Spotify, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, Spotify, IMDb, IMDb, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, IMDb
Images: Universal Pictures, Universal Pictures, Universal Pictures, Universal Pictures
Contact Sam Jasionowski with comments at samantha.jasionowski@bsu.edu or @s.jasionowski on Instagram.
