Wicked: For Good Review

Wicked: For Good

Universal Pictures

Written by Stephen Schwartz, Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox

Directed by Jon M. Chu

Starring Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, Bronwyn James, Colman Domingo, Keala Settle and Sharon D. Clarke

Rated PG

Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West and her relationship with Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. The second of a two-part feature film adaptation of the Broadway musical.

The second act of Wicked has finally premiered in theaters and as a fan of the Broadway show and the first film from director Jon M. Chu, I was looking forward to this release. Knowing how the story ends, I have to give it up to the marketing team for raising my expectations and excitement for the movie. That being said, Wicked: For Good is an entertaining film that has a problem justifying its existence.

The second act of many plays and musicals have a notorious reputation for being the weaker part of the story. The first act builds on the plot, characters, motivations and relationships until it ends with a huge, memorable musical number. Case in point, the first part of Wicked ends with the triumphant and sonically brilliant “Defying Gravity” belted out by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. The second act usually has to bring those story elements in a way that keeps the momentum and energy of the first while giving the viewer the continuation and conclusion of those character stories and what consequences their decisions created.

For Good does that by bringing the audience into the future where Elphaba (Erivo) is hunted and reviled for being the Wicked Witch of the West while Glinda (Grande) is receiving everything that she wants as the good witch. Glinda is performing good while Elphaba is actually doing good in scenes where she is liberating the animals of Oz who are being disenfranchised and used as slave labor. The entire time, the narrative is being manipulated by the Wizard (Goldblum) and his partner Madame Morrible (Yeoh) for the sake of the masses as the wizard’s yellow brick road is laid throughout the country.

One thing that’s never really defined in this story is the motivations of the Wizard and Morrible. What do they actually want? Morrible has actual magic within her, so why does she spend so much time protecting the Wizard when she could easily seize power herself? Beyond control, what does the Wizard actually want and what will he do when he gets it? These things remain unclear and the only performance that truly suffers for it is Yeoh’s Morrible. The Wizard is always meant to be a charming con man and Goldblum nails that element of the character, but Morrible feels unfinished as a character in the film beyond constantly rolling her eyes at Glinda and acting as a minister of propaganda. The one time she truly exerts her power is a big deal and pushes the rest of the story forward, but I still wondered what that show of actual power was actually supposed to accomplish for Morrible herself.

One of the plots of the film revolves around the creation of Dorothy’s companions in the original Wizard of Oz story and how those characters motivations for joining her are connected to Elphaba’s actions. While I liked the fact that we never really see Dorothy because this isn’t her story, the introduction of the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion suffer because of it. The transformation of Boq (Slater) into the Tin Man was fine, but the pacing of it was off. It was too fast to have any emotional weight, but it did give a truly terrifying reveal. Fiyero’s (Bailey) transformation in the Scarecrow is more subtle and hinted at during one of the best songs of the film “No Good Deed”. Other than knowing the Lion’s voice was provided by Colman Domingo, there was nothing memorable about it and the two lines he gave I can scarcely remember.

Erivo and Grande are fantastic and while the first film was definitely a showcase for Erivo’s Elphaba, For Good is pretty much Glinda’s story as she is striving to determine what good is and if she really is good at all as she sees her best friend be hated for doing what she believes in good. Chu makes a beautiful looking film, but the only new set piece is Elphaba’s castle so there isn’t much new to see. The music is great including the two new songs and there are some interesting choices being made with the stage direction with adding Glinda to a musical number she wasn’t part of in the original production.

Wicked: For Good is a bright, colorful and entertaining film. Unfortunately, it suffers from the same problems as its stage counterpart by being weaker in story and character motivation. To be completely honest, it’s a movie that is constantly trying to sell to the audience that it should exist and I came away thinking if it had just been part of the original film with a longer run time, nothing of value would have been lost. Breaking the film into two parts implied that it was going to tell more story and give characters more to experience. Unfortunately, it seemed to move so fast that I felt like I was watching a series of moments rather than an actual story. It hit all the marks, songs and story beats, but it could have been so much more.