Oh thank Oz. I was really dreading this one. The first Wicked was a wonderful salve in a sea of sad movies last year, doing right by the famous musical it was adapting. Well, there’s more happy films this year, and with Defying Gravity in the rear view, how was For Good going to ever match the high of that banger? It doesn’t…but it’s still got enough of the good will from 2024’s opener to make people still believe in the magic of Oz.
Approximately 5 years (12 clock ticks? Oz time doesn’t make sense to me), after the end of the first Wicked, we’re in an Oz in transition. With the words of Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), the kingdom lives in fear of the “Wicked Witch of the West.” Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), try as she might to expose the lies of the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum), gets stymied over & over again. Elphaba’s friend Glinda (Ariana Grande) has risen to be the public face of the Emerald City, the “Good Witch” to combat Wicked (zing!), with Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) now dutifully captaining the Wizard’s Guard by her side. With the Yellow Brick Road near completion, the fight is about to come to a head, probably with a changing of the weather. And a little Kansas thrown in.
Glitz and Glam save the day in Wicked For Good. Jon M. Chu pulls out all the stops here. When in doubt, go bigger and badder. During the singing there’s colors, colors everywhere, with all non Elphaba characters in elaborate, luscious tuxedos and dresses, ready to sing and dance the movie night away. I want Jon M. Chu to be my wedding planner: his Oz wedding is as ornate as the Crazy Rich Asians one. Elphaba lives a simpler life, but at least gets a shockingly hot visit from People’s Sexiest Man Alive. But let’s face it, when we get down to it, Wicked: For Good works because the larger than life songs are being sung by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. When two of the best singers on the planet Belt Out Couldn’t Be Happier and No Good Deed, and duet in For Good, I mean, come on! You have no choice but to bend to that power.
Those little joys are necessary; Wicked: For Good is an example of garbage in garbage out. That’s too mean, but you get the point. My friends and I who saw the play decades ago all said the same thing: the 2nd half is a frantic mess of story stitching. The first Wicked had all the fun of being its own little world. In For Good, Dorothy’s now in Oz. Ergo, you have to make sure each character from the OG Wizard of Oz ends up where they’re supposed to be. And with 5-10 characters and this whole other story we’ve set up in the first Wicked, oof, that’s a lot of plot to get through in between songs. The plot necessities result in characters making frequent logic leaps so we get from A to B as fast as possible, justifying a LOT of heinous behavior, poor decision making, and weird acting choices that would irk me more if I wasn’t being swooned by Grande and Erivo. So at 2 hours 20 minutes, I was never bored, but also never quite along for the ride like I was in the first movie.
I think that means I wasn’t changed for good. Sorry Wicked: For Good. I had fun, but I didn’t burst into tears like large chunks of my audience did as Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo dueted into musical magic. But I do appreciate you turning up the heat a bit in this one; I wish I looked around to see horrified mothers covering kids eyes as [SPOILER ALERT] started taking off their clothes. Now those kids have been changed for good!