For the past two years, the Wicked movie franchise has been the biggest and most talked about. The film was originally announced in 2012, with director changes (from Stephen Daldry to Jon M. Chu) in 2020, and the decision to split it into two films was made in 2022. Fans waited long and hard for the official premiere in November of 2024. Unfortunately for Wicked lovers, another year-long wait was had for the release of Wicked: For Good, which tells the second part of the iconic story.
As someone who has never seen the Wicked musical and only came to know about the story around 2023, I heavily enjoyed the first movie. Between Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s acting, to the amazing soundtrack, It all came together to produce a long, but heavily entertaining watch. However, I believe there is a lack of consistency between both the acting and production in the second movie which is very questionable given they were filmed at the same time. Grande and Erivo did a great job capturing the contradicting bubbly and more stoic vibe of their characters. They also kept up their vocals in songs such as No Good Deed and For Good. But others like Ethan Slater (Boq), Michelle Yeoh (Madame Morrible), and Marissa Bode (Nessarose) had subpar acting in the first movie and it was even worse in the second. Scenes like the breakup between Nessarose and Boq, the Tin Man transformation, and almost every single reaction required from Madame Morrible just lacked any actual emotion or sense that it was authentic and not just poor acting. I will give props to Slater in his scene as the Tin Man at the Royal Palace of Oz. The look of pure anger and resentment he gives Glinda as she stares down at him from her own bedroom really captured the essence of the Tin Man’s story and why his transformation as a heartless piece of metal came to be.
To critique the actual storyline, which was originally written by Winnie Holzman, a lot of plot points also felt glazed over. Considering the first film was almost three hours, viewers expected the second to be the same so there was room for directors to go more in depth with certain storylines. Scenes like Nessarose calling herself “ The Wicked Witch of the East,” the Wizard being revealed as Elphaba’s father, and the Scarecrow’s (Jonathan Bailey) heavy lack of screen time could have been explored more to connect the entire story of Oz. Even though the character is supposed to be brainless, he barely appears in the confrontation scene at Oz, and he only gets two or three scenes as the Scarecrow rather than Fiyero. Given that these character’s transformations into fantastical beings is a big part of Wicked’s storyline, he needed to be shown more to explain why he specifically became a scarecrow. Also, Jonathan Bailey was elected People’s sexiest man alive, so viewers obviously wanted to see more of him.
Another point of anticipation for the Wicked: For Good release was the two “brand new” songs that would be debuted. Technically, these songs aren’t new as they were both written and composed by Stephen Schwartz who worked on the original musical, they were just never featured on stage but nonetheless this was another thing to be excited about for fans. Unfortunately, I truly believe these songs should have stayed out of the storyline. The first, “No Place Like Home,” sung by Cynthia Erivo, just didn’t make sense with Elphaba’s character and also sounded very soft and simple compared to the typical complexity of her vocals. In the song, she’s attempting to convince the animals to stay in Oz and fight for their rights solely because it’s their home. However, as Elphaba was never treated fairly by both her family and the people in Oz she would really have no ties to even the idea of home and especially not Oz. It just doesn’t fit her character at all and that’s probably why they kept it out of the musical. The second song, “Girl in the Bubble,” sung by Ariana Grande had good intent but fell flat of really having any impact. The song is a ballad where Glinda expresses her struggles with growing up in a “a bubble” or a sheltered world, and while I understand the sentiment, it kind of just sounds like her complaining about having a good life. If the song lyrics had been reworked I think it could have had the effect directors were looking for.
I know it may not sound like it, but I did enjoy Wicked: For Good but there are some points that unfortunately overrode my watching experience because they didn’t properly connect the storyline from the first movie. I would recommend watching the movie but if you’re expecting it to be as good or impactful as the first, I wouldn’t get your hopes up.
