In case you were living under a rock, last year's adaptation of the hit Broadway show Wicked hit theatres with thunderous applause. With ten Oscar nominations (including two wins) and a domestic gross of nearly 500 million dollars, it's safe to say the film was a big hit. Now after just a year long wait, we get the second act of the story, closing out everything set forth in the hit first film.
Wicked: For Good is set five years after the events of the first film. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) continues her fight for animal rights while being branded as the Wicked Witch and hunted by the people of Oz. Meanwhile, Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) have risen in the ranks of the Emerald City, each trying to make change in their own way while also trying to find Elphaba. Their friendships and beliefs are put to the test as Elphaba's conflict with the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) boils to its climax.
This is a bit of a tough movie to analyze, as it stands not just as an average movie but truly as an event. It's similar to when Avengers: Endgame came out, its opening weekend truly feeling like a cultural moment beyond just a new movie. In that sense, I do think Wicked: For Good delivers. I do think it's a step down from the first film, but it offers a strong conclusion to the story and had my entire audience erupting at multiple times. Audience reaction is obviously not part of the film itself, but I do think that a film's ability to bring big reactions out of the crowd is something to commend.
If there's one big area this disappoints compared to part one, it has to be the music. Whether it be "Defying Gravity", "Dancing Through Life", or "What is this Feeling?", the first film is filled to the brim with iconic songs. That just isn't the case here. I wouldn't say the music in this one is bad, but there's not a single song that I found memorable. The moments musically I appreciate most were little snippets of songs from the part one, as well as the musical score which I was actually impressed with. But yeah, the songs just didn't hit this time around which ultimately dampens the film as a whole when you consider how crucial the music is.
What I did enjoy more this time around was the story. I did find that the pacing and tone were a bit all over the place, but the bones of the narrative here worked a bit better for me. The first film, as good as it is, does a lot of plodding around for nearly three hours until eventually finding its footing in the finale. This one is emotionally rich from start to finish which I appreciated, especially as the closing chapter to the story. I also found that the visuals were a bit better this time around. The CGI elements worked better, and there are some uses of practical makeup effects that genuinely wowed me (I'm looking at you Boq). The colours are still a bit more diluted than they should be, but I found overall that the look of this one was better than that of the first.
The cast here is pretty much the exact same from the first film, but there's a decent bit of variance in terms of performances and screen time. The duo of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are even better this time around. Erivo has some really great emotional moments, and Grande nails the shifts in her character while also commanding the screen better than I had expected. It's a shame neither of their songs hit as hard as in the first movie, but the performances themselves are a bit stronger. I also found Jonathan Bailey to really step up his game here, although as the film goes on he's sadly underused in my opinion. Jeff Goldblum gets a bigger role and relishes in it, Marissa Bode has some pretty dark moments compared to how lighthearted she was in the first film, and Ethan Slater also does some great work. Sadly one performance stands out among them all, and not in a good way. I love Michelle Yeoh, and I think anyone saying she needs to give her Oscar back because of this is frankly an idiot, but this is just not great work from her. Her performance feels forced and stilted pretty much from start to finish. She lacks the command that she had in the first film, and winds up often just feeling annoying more than anything. I hate to say she was phoning it in, but sadly that's what it felt like. There was also a big deal made of Colman Domingo playing the Cowardly Lion, and sadly he just has two lines so that was a bit of a let down.
All in all, this is a slight step down from the first film but by no means a bad conclusion to the story. It delivers that feeling of a big event and most of the cast is bringing their A-game even if the songs they're singing aren't as good. 3.5/5
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