Perhaps the most hyped up movie since the original, “Wicked: For Good,” was released on Nov. 21, and blew up the box office, even overtaking the original in its first weekend earnings. Despite this, the movie had drawn-out scenes, weak emotional buildup, and lacked the strong, catchy songs of the first movie.
The movie starts off quite exciting, with Elphaba swooping in to save the animals that are being forced to build the iconic “yellow brick road,” a testament to the villainous nature of the wizard and the state of Oz. The next high point in the movie is the song “Wonderful,” where the Wizard of OZ, Elphaba, and Glinda all sing an upbeat song with dazzling visuals. However, following this point in the movie, there seems to be a lot of filler. Elphaba is constantly on the brink of being captured, but the confrontations are often illogical and anticlimactic. Additionally, scenes of “magic and whimsy” keep harshly jumping to scenes of oppression and dictatorship, and the whole movie feels negative, especially compared to the first one.
In terms of development, Madam Morrible is one of the better-developed characters; she becomes almost more of a villain than the Wizard of Oz and takes on a much more significant role in being a “dictator” and causing harm to Oz and Elphaba. Unfortunately, for Glinda’s development, she continues to support Morrible even when she has audibly put the pieces together about who the true evil is. Her development is painstakingly slow and doesn’t match up with the, albeit small, amount of emotional intelligence and knowledge of Elphaba’s positive motives she had from the first movie.
A soft twist in the middle of the movie was Fiyero siding with and confessing his true love to Elphaba (shocker). However, the song and the lightly risqué scene that ensued felt more weird than whatever the intended effect was.
When tension between Elphaba and Glinda peaked, the scene was very much underutilized. Instead of a rowdy musical number with great visuals, there was essentially a middle school cat fight as both characters jousted with their respective wands.
It’s from this point that the movie starts to pick up the pace. Fiyero gets captured, and Elphaba retreats to his family’s castle in the West. Believing that Fiyero has been killed, Elphaba decides to completely flip the switch. The visuals on the castle are electric, and the following song, “No Good Deed,” is definitely the best in the movie. The upside-down arches, the flying monkeys, and the sandy red hue all perfectly capture the shift that Elphaba is deciding to make, to truly decide to be “wicked.”
From here, it all goes down very fast. The scene cuts to Emerald City, where Madam Morrible is leading a charge to capture Elphaba. The movie also introduces the original Wizard of Oz characters, Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, etc. Although it seemed as if they had to be put in rather than actually being deeply important to the plot. Luckily, after about two painful hours, Glinda finally develops a backbone, ditches her “pink princess” look, dons a black cape, and goes to meet Elphaba.
Despite finally reaching the climax of the entire movie, this scene fell flat as well. The song “For Good” was amazing vocally, but at the moment, Elphaba’s choices seemed so irrational as to distract from the emotion of the scene. The twist is definitely the saving grace of this movie. Although it did take a while to get there, the conclusion is relatively satisfying and brings closure to the series, while also working out some of Elphaba’s choices that didn’t make sense in the moment.
Due to the pacing, lack of quality songs, weak emotions, and encompassing gloomy tone, “Wicked: For Good” receives 2.5/5 stars. Definitely still worth watching if you enjoyed the first movie, but maybe don’t let your hopes defy gravity.
