Elphaba, “The Wicked Witch of the West”, is hunted by various forces, including The Wizard of Oz and her BFF Glinda the Good, in John M. Chu’s Wicked: For Good, the lesser second half of the Broadway adaptation.
A year ago, Wicked: Part One was released to great acclaim, a critical and commercial hit. With amazing songs, a pair of fantastic leads, and a sense of epic grandeur, it hit culture as hard as a house falling on a witch. But it was just the first half of the story. It was decided to split the sprawling show into two parts, with a full year of intermission between. The second act of the 2003 Broadway adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s book Wicked is known for being nowhere as strong as the first, with a more shambolic story, lesser songs, an iffier plot structure, and a kinda silly rush through the culturally known visit by Dorothy of Kansas. With the second part of Wicked’s adaptation presented as its own movie, and movie-length time to explore and expand for over two hours instead of fifty minutes or so, it was hoped that For Good (as it’s subtitled) would address, fix, and soar over the issues.
I’m sad to say it doesn’t. The back half of Wicked is still a technical marvel with continued astonishing costuming, production design (although both of these feel lesser and less carefully constructed), and cinematography, but story-wise, song-wise, and choreography-wise (by that, there is no dancing this time), it drops the bucket of water on the possibilities; all while still being engaging with an interesting overall story and two slam-bang performances at the center of it all.
For Good is well, to use ot the title, good; but it comes nowhere near soaring the majestic, heart-lifting, building height of the first half. It’s a shame. The elements are there, all set up in the 2024’s first part, even with fewer and less memorable songs and a shift of location and focus, it could have built up a powerful, layered story, but they were cowardly lions in fulfilling the promises. 
Yes, it’s all partly beholden to the Broadway musical. But with show libertteo writer Winnie Holzman as the screener writer (with Dana Fox) and 22 years of criticisms about the weaker half, it was ripe to say “okay, here’s how I can I can fix it,” especially since part 1 was able to transition to stage to film so well, remixing the story for the new medium. Part of the issue comes in the scattering of the plot and characters. When all the action is at a handful of locations, Shiz University and the Emerald City, and a clear plot line “these mitchmatched roomates sure do hate one another. I do not care for the green girl?… Or do I?” with additional notes to set up the larger world; the con artist of the wizard, the covering of what Oz was like before (forgotten by the second half), the loss of animal rights; all leading to an increase of danger for minorities and outsiders in Oz in favor of a powerful propaganda fueled leader quelling descent.
For Good picks up a year after Wicked ended on the high of Defying Gravity, with Elphaba and Glinda parting ways, both aware of the issues with their system, but one wanting to change externally and the other internally (and vying for public attention). The heart of the story is there, within these power dynamics. Everyone is putting on false faces; it’s a film where everyone’s surface and statements are at odds with themselves. The Wizard is a flam-flam man. Madame Morrible is leading the charge of fascism, while leading the smear campaign against the person who knows the truth of it all, pushing blame to and a distraction to the Talking Animals and Elphaba. Glinda has no magic powers and acts as a mouthpiece to keep peace in odds with her lack of magic and knowing she’s spouting lies, but liking the attention and keeping tabs on the real villains. Prince Fiyero is not in love with his fiancée, Glinda, and is leading the hunt for the Wicked Witch, but he loves her and is purposely kneecapping the hunt. Now the Governor of Munchkinland, Elphaba’s sister Nessarose, is, well, she’s doing something (her end of the story feels like an afterthought or a “we gotta do it”), including keeping Boq, still pining for Glinda, essentially hostage; increasing her own wickedness and hypocrisy to keep him around. And Elphaba is using her notoriety to try to enact change by being a pain to the Wizard and Morrible’s plans.
She’s not good at it. Her disruptions are annoying at best to stop the building of the yellow brick road (she fails) or convince the Talking Animals to stay in Oz instead of fleeing. She fails since her augment is a half-sure “um.. Stay and fight?… You know the thing you’ve been doing for decades.” Her actions in the books are a full-on terror strike where she gets increasingly real villainous, losing sight of the forest through the trees. It’s too bad Holzman and Fox didn’t pull from this end; keep her Good, but make her formidable. That’s the issue; none of the story threads and ideas are pulled or tied together. Honestly, everyone is half-assing, with character growths and implications held back for a larger public conception, coasting on the setup of Part 1. Oz is an increasingly fascist regime, but it’s light and underthought instead of a fully realised underground. It’s strange with the scripting. Every scene feels like it’s missing a beat or two; in complete in the telling. It’s consistent, so I’m curious if it was on the page like that or cut to make the film shorter with snips and cuts here and there.
Oh yeah, and a young girl in a gingham gown crash lands in Munchkinland, one who might be used by the various forces. This portion of the plot, treated in a jokey “we ogtta do this” aspect, is treated Super Serious, You Guys; often painfully awkwardly staged (in particular a bit of body horror to bring us a specific character). I question the timeline of this segment in terms of continuity.
Issues and all, it’s still compelling and has enough of a drive and push that I was engaged, but also annoyed as I was thinking the above while going through. Everything could be done better, connected with a stronger line. But shifting between nearly vignette plotting of “what’s this person up to now, let’s have Elphaba check in on them” chokes the momentum. It’s not cohesive, but it could be.
But at least Chu has put together a cast that continues to elevate all the material. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, as Glinda and Elphaba, respectively, are still as pitch-perfect, eye-catching, and vocally wowing as ever. They are everything for these characters, fully living them. While Wicked gave Grande the larger growth, it was Ervinos’s film; For Good is far more Grande’s, continuing Glinda’s struggles of balancing her wants, needs, truths, and lies; more in the foreground, driving the details of the plot. The Wicked Witch is a plot device; Glinda is a protagonist. The pair continues to have so much chemistry that the screen explodes with collisions and collusion of charisma, and they use every ounce of it. For Good is worth it to watch them act, interact, and sing.
Plenty of remarkable singing, but it’s too bad the show’s killer bangers are in the first half. The titular song is the best of the set for the back half, and they are all fine, just less memorable. More emotional, characters getting it out and singing at one another, it misses the choreography and detail of movement. There are two new songs, one for each lead. Both are fine, with Ernivos being the better song even if I cringe at the forced “There’s No Place Like Home” reference, but Grande’s has some amazing camera work that threatens to overshadow the song, “The Girl in the Bubble.”. Jeff Goldblum might not sing well, but he gives a fun pep to “Wonderful”. Poor Michelle Yeoh, with only a few lines to sing, and not her strong suit, all strange as she has the first singularly sung line in the film. Also weird, I liked her campy Madame Morrible last time, but she was flat and annoyed to be around, like she didn’t realise she signed onto two shows at once and is finishing her days as quickly as she can.
On the technical end, the costumes from newly minted Oscar winner Paul Tazewell and the production design by Nathan Crowley (also winning an Oscar for Part 1) are still astounding, but there’s less to chew on; far less showy as stretched across the wide location settings feels they had less to work with into the wow factor in the pointed locations allowed to focus and breathe. Chu and cinematographer Alice Brook work very well in tandem for a sweeping epic in tone and feel; it’s a grand look, fully realizing the world of Oz.
Wicked: For Good, as directed by John M. Chu, is a large step down from the predecessor. It was expected, but still a sad return; the potential for something bigger, grander, and more put together was there, but not followed through. Still, a pair of amazing leads and a fantastic world-building make it worth the broom flight to the biggest theater possible to soak in the epic. Just excerpt to be more down to Oz instead of defying gravity with excitement.