By George & Josh Bate
Like the stage production on which it is based, Wicked (2024) was a global phenomenon. As moviegoers who don’t typically gravitate toward musicals, we found the musical that defied gravity for many to be a surprisingly enjoyable, energetic, and engaging adventure. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for its sequel Wicked: For Good, a messily told, laboriously paced, and unintentionally funny disaster of a movie.
Following the events of the first film, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is branded as an enemy of the people of Oz due to her defiance of the Wizard’s (Jeff Goldblum) regime. Meanwhile, Glinda (Ariana Grande) has become the spokesperson for the Wizard and a celebrity to the people of Oz, a position that puts her at odds with her former best friend.
Unlike its predecessor, which had an energy and (pun intended) magic to it, Wicked: For Good unfolds in tedious and jumbled fashion. Director Jon M. Chu’s film immediately starts on shaky footing, with an entire first act that does little beyond showing characters state (or sing) about their intentions and feelings established in the preceding film over and over and over again. It quickly becomes repetitive and tiring, especially when compared to the propulsive pacing and spirit of last year’s musical hit.
The frustration yielded from the film’s first act is amplified by a calamitous amount of overly long scenes that refuse to end. Various scenes linger for so long that they feel like short films or vignettes, meaning key characters drop out of the story for puzzlingly long periods of time before popping up again. This narrative structure only makes the sedating pacing of the film all the more frustrating as so much time is spent on uninteresting characters and even less interesting subplots that take away from the focus on Glinda and Elphaba.
When the narrative Wicked: For Good finally exhibits some movement, the film evolves from prosaic to painful. Both in conception and execution, the story is ridiculously messy. Characters make bewildering decisions, subplots vanish into thin air, elements are introduced that are poorly followed up on, chemistry between stars Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey is non-existent, and the world-building begins to crumble in on itself.
Things go from bad to worse when the film begins to integrate elements of The Wizard of Oz into its narrative, no longer operating as a prequel to the classic tale, but, rather, a story that runs concurrent to the classic film and depicts events from the perspectives of Glinda and Elphaba, rather than Dorothy. Achieving a rare feat, Wicked: For Good somehow makes the iconic The Wizard of Oz retrospectively worse. Chu’s film poorly reconciles its story with that of The Wizard of Oz, making mental attempts to connect the two films and see them as two sides of the same story near impossible. Explanations of the origins of the Tin Man and the Scarecrow come across as silly rather than surprising or insightful, while the film’s handling of Dorothy as a fairly unimportant side character (who never utter dialogue nor has her face shown) proves puzzling.
All of the messy storytelling and poor integration of characters and plot points from the Wizard of Oz (not to mention an abudance of unintentionally funny moments) converge on a truly perplexing conclusion. Committed performances from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo imbue this ending with some heart, but, largely, it is plagued by strange and nonsensical decisions from their characters that end up blunting the emotional effectiveness of the climax. In turn, the film completely loses any sense of narrative cohesion or emotional groundedness, resulting in total loss of investment in the story and its characters.
But that’s not the true end of the story, because Wicked: For Good features a seemingly endless number of epilogues that drag out the excruciating viewing experience even more. Any hopes that these epilogues could salvage some of the damage done go out the window as several of them make an already poor ending all the more awful and, perhaps most damningly, see our empathy for one of our two leads evaporate before our eyes.
Independent of its jumbled storytelling, Wicked: For Good features musical setpieces that lack the punch and rousing emotion of songs from its predecessor. There is nothing close to the quality of “Defying Gravity” or “Popular” in the sequel, an issue even the extraordinary singing and acting talents of Grande and Erivo can’t overcome. For moviegoers who tend not to seek out musicals (but happened to enjoy the first Wicked for the most part), For Good fails as both a musical and movie.
VERDICT: 3/10
Wicked: For Good falls desperately short of the quality of its charming and magical predecessor. After a tedious first act that fails to move the plot forward and features characters stating (or singing) about their intentions over and over and over again, director Jon M. Chu’s sequel becomes bogged down by excessively long scenes and, most strikingly, a messy story featuring bewildering character decisions, unnecessary subplots, and an awful integration of characters and story elements from The Wizard of Oz. Things go from bad to worse with a conclusion plagued by even stranger and more nonsensical character decisions that end up blunting the emotional effectiveness of the climax and result in total loss of investment in the journeys of Glinda and Elphaba. A seemingly endless number of epilogues only worsen this misfire of a climax, while the musical setpieces that encompass the film lack the punch and rousing emotion of the songs from its predecessor. Extraordinary and committed performances from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo thankfully save Wicked: For Good from total ruin, although it is nonetheless disappointing to see last year’s magical musical followed by such messy, mundane moviemaking.