Wicked: For Good Review

For a little bit of context for this review, I enjoyed Wicked: Part One but didn’t love it like some do. I’ve never seen the stage show, but would very much like to, and before last year the only Wicked songs I know of were Popular and Defying Gravity. I had also heard that it’s widely considered that the first half of the stage show is a lot stronger than the second. A little bit more context, I love The Wizard of Oz, I think it’s a pretty perfect film across the board, a film I’ve seen multiple times.

Wicked: For Good takes place several years after the events of Wicked. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is still on the run from the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and out to prove that he’s a liar and a fraud, however the Wizard has given Glinda (Ariana Grande) a role in order to restore hope to the people of Oz. Elphaba learns of Glinda’s wedding to Fiyero (Jonathon Bailey) and decides it would be the perfect opportunity to educate the most powerful people in Oz.

As I said in my opening paragraph, the second half doesn’t have as strong of a reputation as the first half, and to an extent I agree, but in my opinion the first half is equally as weak as this one from a story point of view. The problem comes from that Part One leaves it in a great place and sets up a great second Part, which isn’t fully delivered upon. To be clear, I don’t think this is the director’s fault or anything, just how the story was written. I found the film particularly got messier when it started to tie itself directly into The Wizard of Oz. The location of certain characters, at certain times or how long characters have been in a place is widely different to what I imagined to the point, especially with one character that it really bothered me.

It’s a huge advantage for the film that it can be so much cinematic than what the stage show could ever be, and I don’t think it particularly made a good use of it. The second act of the show is generally about an hour, yet this film clocks in an extra hour, 20 minutes on top of that. Without having seen the show it’s hard to know what extra we get out of it, but I certainly would’ve used that opportunity to tie it more directly into The Wizard of Oz, and see iconic moments and tie it in, now that we know Elphaba and Glinda more, you’d see those scenes in a different light and could recontextualise moments.

The first film picked up a whole host of Oscar Nominations last year, and I think there’s a good chance of it doing the same again this year. The film won 2 Oscars which were for Production Design and Costume Design. I think it will certainly earn a nomination in those categories again, as well as a host of the other creative craft categories, however will have strong competition particularly from Frankenstein and Sinners.

I think there’s a strong chance that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande pick up nominations again for Lead Actress and Supporting Actress, and I do think that one of them has a good chance of winning. Earlier on in the season, I would’ve considered it be Erivo, but now the race is starting to get underway, I think the much better chance of winning is Grande. Multiple people have said that the first film is much more about Elphaba and this second part is more so about Glinda, which I don’t think is fully true, it’s just that this film is more evenly split, and with that more screen time Grande delivers, she really is the heart of the film. There’s a lot of really good subtleties to her performance, little moments which really elevate it to a fantastic performance.

The songs are always a big talking point of these films especially considering how iconic particularly Defying Gravity is. There are a couple of good songs in this one. I particularly liked No Good Deed and For Good, I barely remember any of the other ones. The 2 new songs which were written for the film, No Place Like Home and The Girl in the Bubble, don’t add anything to the story, particularly No Place Like Home felt a little too on the nose. Again if we’re looking ahead to award season, a solid chance they both get nominated, with The Girl in the Bubble, likely having the edge out of the two of them.

Overall, Wicked: For Good runs into similar issues for me as the first one which is mostly from a story point of view. The tie-in moments to The Wizard of Oz are disappointing, but that doesn’t take away from good moments particularly between the two main characters and strong performances from the leads. I hope this isn’t the last we see of Oz (there’s already talk it won’t be).

What did you think of Wicked: For Good?

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