“Wicked: For Good” is the second half of the phenomenal Wicked that came out around the same time last year. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won four. It grossed $758 million worldwide and $475 domestically. This second part has a lot to live up to regarding what I’ve just said. Jon M. Chu took a big risk splitting this world-renowned Broadway play into two parts. With the results of the first half, who could blame him. Now the second film is coming out, and he and the rest of the cast and crew have to bring it all the way like a home run. 

Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) has broken away from the ties to her school, Shiz University, The Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), her sister Nessarose Thropp (Marissa Bode) and her best friend Glinda (Ariana Grande). She’s on her own trying to stop the building of the yellow brick road,  defend the rights of animal kind and spread the word that the Wizard is a liar and shouldn’t be trusted by the people of OZ. It’s harder than she thought as Madame Morrible (Michelle Yoeh) has started a campaign to discredit her and make the people OZ fear and hate her. This proved to be very effective, which ends up making Elphaba go into hiding and pick her spots to strike and try to make a difference. She has an uphill battle trying to clear her name and helping the people of OZ get the truth about what’s truly going on.

One of the most popular things about these films is the music. The last film ended on a great high flying moment with Erivo belting out the huge hit song “Defying Gravity”. This movie has two new songs “The Girl in the Bubble” performed by Ariana Grande and “Noplace Like Home” performed by Cynthia Erivo. These two moments in the movie were good and the songs made an impact on the story, but they weren’t as good or better than the other songs from the play “For Good”, “As Long As Your Mine” and “No Good Deed” along with continuations of “March of the Hunters” and “Wonderful”. These original songs felt more impactful to me in the context of the story rather than the new song did. That being said, all the music is very good in this film. Erivo and Grande are absolute powerhouses, and they make these songs come to life. 

I’ve mentioned a lot of the cast already, and one of the strengths of these movies is the cast. Chu and the casting director have done a great job picking the people they want to embody these iconic characters. All the cast do a fantastic job with, obviously Erivo and Grande, doing exceptional work, but the one person who stepped up in the second part of this story was Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero. He came across as a bit annoying and shmaltsy in the first film, but this time around, he gave more of an emotional performance. I cared more about his journey in the story. Bailey, as an actor, showed me that he’s more than just a song and dance man with a bit of a comedic side to him. He genuinely came across as a sympathetic character. I felt something for. I was glad to see his character’s progression in the second act of this story.

Besides the acting and the music which I already mentioned, there are a few other things I’d like to talk about. The first Wicked, this’ll be a trend in this review, got some criticism over the cgi and the visuals. They kind of looked a bit muted or washed out as people like to say. This time around, the cinematography looks a bit darker. There were many scenes that were hard to see. Whether they be in a wooded area or a dark castle. This is very different from the last movie. Even a scene where Elphaba was attacking men building the yellow brick road looked a bit wonky. Most of the animal CGI was good, though. I think Chu and company made sure they gave the second half of this story a darker aesthetic than the first half. Which went along with the darker story elements. 

Speaking of the story. This story is based on the book written by Gregory Maguire and, in turn, adapted into the Broadway play thirty years ago. Since then, the text has changed a little bit. As Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox turned this epic story into this terrific two part film. Even they couldn’t realize how prophetic this story would end up becoming.They world we live in is awfully similar to some of the events and characters from these two films. The fake Wizard pretends to be all powerful when he’s really weak and shallow minded and intimidated by those who stand up against him. Remind you of anybody? Also, Glinda, the good, is masquerading as a good witch with powers, and she has none. She’s just a fake symbol the people of OZ can follow along with. Together, these two are not what they should be, which are leaders who can be respected.  Throw in Elphaba, and you have the trope of the racial character fighting to overcome the odds and leaders of the world who have prejudices against her. She is better than they are, and they are threatened by that. It’s clear to me that this story has a greater meaning than you’d probably from the outside looking in. It seems to be the theme of movies this year. 

I heard from some people when I was coming out of my screening of Wicked: For Good saying they wanted to see more of Dorothy and Toto. My opinion on that is this isn’t their story. If you want to see their story, watch The Wizard of Oz. I definitely liked not seeing them that much. I learned more about Nessarose (Marissa Bode) and Boq Woodmen (Ethan Slater) and Fiyero Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey). These subplots gave me the information I wanted about these side characters, which made the overall story that much better. I know people always say less is more, but in this case, more was more, and I’m glad fans of the franchise got some fantastic stories from these side characters. 

I will say that I absolutely loved the first half of this epic story Wicked. It was my number one film of the year last year. It hit on all the moments I wanted it  to and topped it off at the end with the showstopper of all showstoppers “Defying Gravity” performed brilliantly by Cynthia Erivo. That being said, “Wicked: For Good” didn’t do anything to  top that moment for me. The darker aesthetic, themes, and character development didn’t help that at all, either. Chu and the cast and the rest of the people involved with this two part epic story aren’t at fault for that. The story is the problem. Chu and the screenwriters did what they could with this story. Maybe splitting  the film into two parts and adding a couple of new songs and so forth wasn’t exactly the best idea. Seeing as how the previous act ended on such a high, it was always going to be hard for act 2 to reach that heights of part one of the epic two part film. I feel bad saying this, but this half didn’t live up to the first half for me. I wish I was saying otherwise, but that’s how film criticism works. You have to be honest with yourself. 

3 stars

Dan Skip Allen