On November 21st, “Wicked: For Good” was released in theatres. It came exactly a year after the first part of “Wicked.” Both movies were released just in time for Thanksgiving weekend. I saw the first one and absolutely loved it, so I had to go see the second as soon as possible. I have also seen the musical live twice and had quite high expectations for the movies. However, if you have not seen the musical or movie, beware of spoilers ahead!
The second movie had been surrounded by heavy amounts of controversy preceding its release and even within reviews I had seen, with many people saying it did not compare to the first one or any number of other criticisms. However, I went in knowing that the second act of the musical just is not as good as the first in the source material, so translated on screen it most likely would not be as good either.
Even then, I was surprised with how much I liked the movie. I had forgotten a lot of the musical so I was surprised by the plot twist of Elphaba being alive in the end and most of the plot was new to me. While I am sure some scenes were added into the movie since it was longer than the second half of the musical, anything that was added fit really well and was unnoticeable. I did really like how the film came back around at the end to Glinda singing “No One Mourns The Wicked,” and giving the same speech she gave at the beginning. Although I believe that is in the musical as well, it was well done in the movie.
One thing I did mention was how the first half was better than the second half. That is more because the first half has the big songs like “Defying Gravity” and “Popular,” while the second half lacks a lot of big moments and focuses more on the storyline. It did have some good moments though. My favorite song was “No Good Deed.” It was sort of the “Defying Gravity” moment of the second part. Another good moment was Glinda singing “I’m Not That Girl,” mirroring Elphaba who had sung it in the first film. That was in the musical as well.
They did add a couple songs to the movie that were not in the musical, those being “The Girl In The Bubble” and “No Place Like Home.” This was most likely because in the musical there are 11 songs in the first act and only eight in the second. “The Girl In The Bubble” is Glinda’s “No Good Deed” song, or her turning point. It is where she realizes she needs to change the way she has been living. “No Place Like Home,” on the other hand, was a nice callback to the original “The Wizard of Oz” in which Dorothy said those famous words after returning home.
Overall, I saw no problems with the film. It seemed to have fallen into a simple case of people over-critiquing it. The singing in the film was phenomenal, and I really have no experience to be able to critique their acting. The plot was good, none of the changes strayed too far from the original storyline, in my memory, and most importantly, it was extremely fun to watch. I was immersed in the world of Oz for the full two hour run time of the movie, with the movie’s beautiful costumes and elaborate scenery. I would highly recommend giving “Wicked: For Good” a watch.
