After the longest intermission in musical history, the second half of the Broadway adaptation, Wicked: For Good, arrives in theaters one year after the first film became an audience and awards juggernaut, delighting critics and fans alike with its bold energy and grand production designs (but not me). This follow-up has the difficult task of not only concluding the story, but also adapting what is widely considered the weaker section of the musical, a portion known for being simultaneously thin and overstuffed.
This second part does not really fix the weaker songs, the way the character arcs repeat the first act, or the clunky connection to The Wizard of Oz. For the target audience, the die hard fans who have been listening to these songs for twenty years, these problems will hardly matter, just like they did not on stage. For those fans, what counts is that Jon M. Chu stays as faithful as possible and that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande bring heart, humor, and beautiful performances of the songs.
Considering the disadvantage Jon M. Chu created when he split the story in two, he still manages a fairly efficient first half. With the characters and world already in place, Wicked: For Good can focus more directly on its thematic ideas and political gestures, many of which feel uncomfortably relevant today. A population searching for someone to blame. A society that slips toward authoritarian thinking because the comfort of a clear, simple directive outweighs the effort of critical judgment. An entire race being barred from leaving its town because a governor feels personally offended. Freed monkeys hesitating to leave their cage and a lion admitting that freedom cost him his courage. Feels like I am describing the real world right? Other additions also land well, like young Glinda’s flashback and the moment when the animals lose faith in Elphaba. Whenever the film leans into these ideas, it comes closest to justifying its existence.
It is frustrating then that such changes remain minimal and do not really alter the outcome, which, when you think of it, is not all that different from the first. Just like in the musical, the first act feels like the one that tells the story and develops the characters, while the second mostly ambles along as a long epilogue. You could place this film’s climactic song, “For Good,” at the end of Act One and it would still make complete narrative sense. Dessa is the only character who receives proper development, and the film gives the character’s story more room to breath. Both Elphaba and Glinda are pushed once again into the same choice they faced in “Defying Gravity,” whether to align with the Wizard or not, and even though the stakes escalate for each of them, Elphaba losing her sister and Glinda her fiancé, these events never feel like they truly transform either woman.
Elphaba’s arc is especially frustrating. When she reaches “No Good Deed,” it feels like the moment these two films have been building toward. Unfortunately, the narrative never follows through, and we never see her lean into the new identity the song describes. A version where she actually breaks bad toward Dorothy could have given the final act the urgency it needed. But instead of embracing changes that would have strengthened the story, the film adds odd sequences, like the opening CGI fight and an embarrassing physical confrontation between the witches.
Because the arcs are not pushed to their full potential, the actors are often left repeating emotional beats from the first film. Erivo once again carries the dramatic weight and grounds Elphaba. Grande conveys Glinda’s inner doubts through her wide eyes, and some of her realizations end up being quite touching. Jonathan Bailey, like his character, is muted in this second part, so Jeff Goldblum becomes the charismatic standout among the supporting players, specially during his “Wonderful” song. Michelle Yeoh, by contrast, looks clearly uncomfortable whenever she needs to sing. The rest of the cast sings extremely well, even while performing some very weak songs.
It is widely accepted amongst Wicked fans that most of the musical’s strongest numbers are in Act One, which is true musically and narratively. In the previous film, “The Wizard and I” revealed Elphaba’s dream, “Popular” developed her relationship with G(a)linda and hinted at Glinda’s insecurity, and “Defying Gravity” became the moment Elphaba found her voice. Most of the Wicked: For Good songs work more as commentary on what we already know. “As Long as You Are Mine” and “No Good Deed” are the exceptions. Two new songs appear designed for awards attention, but they are bland, repetitive, and add nothing that is not present elsewhere.
On the technical side, the film largely maintains the first chapter’s craft. The award-winning costume design remains intricate, imaginative, and consistently impressive. Sets and props are monumental but often so polished that they feel like sets rather than places the characters inhabit. Visual effects are inconsistent, distracting especially in flying shots and close-ups of the animals, though makeup work on a new metallic creature is strong. Color contrasts are brighter this time, with less of the flat gray from the first film, though blown-out light still flattens several scenes, especially in Dessa’s house. The orchestral score is the film’s clearest technical triumph. John Powell expands Stephen Schwartz’s themes into full cinematic arrangements, finding new colors in melodies fans already know, while keeping control of the film’s tone even as the direction wavers between darker and lighter moments.
The direction also struggles with several musical numbers. Because there is less energetic music, Chu attempts to bring his creativity to the slower ballads, and these choices often distract. The mirror effect in “Girl in the Bubble” calls attention to itself without adding meaning, and the major songs are staged with surprising plainness, robbing them of the impact they should have. “For Good” repeats the same spinning camera technique from “Defying Gravity,” and “No Good Deed” never matches the intensity of its lyrics.
As with the first film, the strict fidelity is both the draw and the problem. Every song is preserved, whether it helps the story or not, and the film’s intriguing darker themes, especially the political ones, stay mostly on the surface. Viewers who found the earlier half “thrillifying” will likely be moved by this conclusion, but anyone who sensed limits in the material will find those limits unchanged.