Film review: Second half of film adaptation doesn’t quite soar in ‘Wicked: For Good’
After an extremely long intermission (a full year, which a lot of us spent humming “Defying Gravity”), we’re back in the Land of Oz with “Wicked: For Good,” the second half of Jon M. Chu’s screen version of the smash Broadway musical. The first film, 2024’s “Wicked,” was an absolute thrill ride; the second … well, let’s just say I’m not overwhelmed. But maybe not underwhelmed, either; just whelmed, I guess.
Everything that made the first movie work so well is here: the splendid ensemble cast, the glorious set and costume designs, the sweeping grandeur of the songs, the skilled CGI that made us believe that we were riding a broomstick with Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo). There’s much to enjoy, but the problem is that you feel like you’ve seen it before, which you have – and it was better the first time.
Perhaps this is inevitable when stretching a two-and-a-half-hour musical to five hours on screen, particularly when the show is structured so that most of the real bangers in the soundtrack are in Act One. (Listen closely, though, midway through the new film and you’ll hear a very witty instrumental reprise of “Popular.”)
In “Wicked: For Good,” Elphaba has become known as the Wicked Witch of the West, opposed to the regime of the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), while her former bestie Galinda (Ariana Grande) is now the fairylike Glinda the Good, the smiling face of Oz stage-managed by Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh).
Things begin to bleed into the story we know from childhood, told from another angle – we see the child Dorothy (who has few if any lines of dialogue), a scarecrow, a tin man and what someone describes as “a very nervous lion” – and there’s a happy-ish ending of sorts in which we finally get to hear the lovely title song, with Erivo and Grande’s voices blending like angels.
It’s a fundamental problem in “Wicked: For Good” that Glinda and Elphaba don’t have many scenes or songs together, hearkening back to one of the great strengths of the first film: Erivo and Grande have an enchanting chemistry, both vocally and emotionally. Here they’re mostly separate, and they both have lovely moments. Grande, whose Glinda seems made of deliciously perfumed air, moves easily from screwball comedy – a scene in which Glinda learns she’s being given a bubble for transport is an absolute master class in charm, as is a moment in which Glinda imitates Elphaba’s famous cackle – to something deeper, as Glinda finds a strength she didn’t know she had. Erivo’s Elphaba is warriorlike yet vulnerable, surprised to find herself worthy of love (note Erivo’s ever-so-slightly naughty spin on the line “For the first time I feel … wicked”), and carrying the film’s emotional weight through her powerful voice. “Wicked: For Good” only truly touches the heart when these two are together on screen, which for the most part they’re not.
But that’s not to say there isn’t plenty to look at, and I’m not just talking about Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) and his impeccable bone structure. Production designer Nathan Crowley and costume designer Paul Tazewell, both of whom won Oscars for the first “Wicked,” have outdone themselves again, creating a breathtaking world of color – you have never seen so many variants of green as in the streets of the Emerald City, like an eco-rainbow – and fantasy. Golden butterflies pave the aisle on Glinda’s wedding day; Elphaba’s cape dances in the wind like a malignant fairy; a field of pink tulips stretches endlessly toward the sky. Every frame has something beautiful and creative at which to gaze; maybe the impeccable curved seaming on a Madame Morrible gown, maybe the dreamlike pink cloud on the tip of Glinda’s wand, maybe the striking visual of endless piles of bright-yellow brick, soon to become a road on which dreams can prance.
At its heart, the “Wicked” saga is about something that’s still sadly rare on screen: the complicated relationship between two women, in a world both wild fantasy and eerily like our own. And while it’s easy for us to second-guess how Chu might have avoided this second-half slump – trim a few of the songs, tighten up the drama, save a few surprises for the last act – it’s still a remarkable achievement to create a world like this on screen, and to cast it with actors who find magic at every turn. “Wicked: For Good” could have been better, but it’s still a glorious journey to Oz.