Is 'Wicked: For Good' Any Good?

Diving into the blockbuster musical

For Liz’s review of the last film, click here

One of the cardinal rules of drama is “show, don’t tell.” In this director’s humble opinion, while overall a very good musical movie, Wicked: For Good, would have actually benefited from just a little more telling.

For those new to the scene, this past weekend, part two of Jonathan Chu’s film adaptation of the highly acclaimed Broadway musical Wicked was released (part one was released last November). Overall, I liked it. I definitely didn’t leave the theatre with the same feelings as I did when I left after part one, but to be fair, part two has a lot of heavy lifting to do following an almost entirely lighthearted and fairly comedic part one– case in point, Glinda’s comedic sidekicks (played by Bowen Yang and Bronwyn James) make one hilarious, but small, appearance. That said, if you enjoyed part one, I doubt you’ll be disappointed by part two.

Musically, part two stayed in time with part one, and the only performance leaving something to be desired was Madame Morrible… I really, really wish they would have just not even tried to have her sing, even the small phrases they gave her. Her acting was great– possibly even better in this film– her singing… less so. Thankfully, the principals continued to deliver excellent musical performances, doing their best to leave their distinct mark on the story with two new songs (one for Erivo and one for Grande), though more on that later. Jonathan Bailey’s performance of “As Long As You are Mine,” was solid, though I personally found his vocals more suited to the style of “Dancing Through Life,” in part one. Cynthia Erivo is almost too good of a singer for Wicked. She is such a strong singer who sings so effortlessly that even incredibly challenging songs like “No Good Deed” float out of her mouth. Compared to Idina Menzel’s more raw performance from the stage version, Erivo’s proficient handling of the vocal challenge almost toned the song down. The much anticipated “For Good,” while musically the climax of part two, was a beautiful duet between Erivo and Grande, though it is certainly hard to follow the musical intensity that the first film ends on (“Defying Gravity”), so it definitely felt a little anti-climactic, despite being musically exceptionally well done. I’m a sucker for a good leitmotif, so I loved how they used the “Popular” theme in a few key moments throughout the movie, adding to some of the other motifs originally used throughout the show.

As far as acting performances, any critiques I had for Ariana Grande’s acting in the first film are forgotten. For me, her acting performance was the highlight of the film. Her emotional vulnerability throughout the entire film was top notch, and extremely believable, which is one of the reasons that I am actually glad that they did split the show into two movies. Erivo’s acting remained excellent, as did the rest of the cast– even the ever quirky Jeff Goldblum had moments of genuine emotion that were delivered very well (though I am still somewhat convinced he made them agree to his ad libs to the script in his contract). Two performances that stood out were Marissa Bode as Nessarose Thropp, and Ethan Slater as Boq. I was honestly sad that they weren’t in the movie more because their performances were stellar. Bode’s portrayal of Nessarose’s conflict, confusion, and bitterness next to Slater’s frustration and genuine feeling was extremely convincing. And there was some super fun foreshadowing early in their scene.

Individual elements aside, my biggest critique was with some of the story telling. I actually heartily approve of the decision to split the movie in two, as I think it provides the opportunity to make the story more compelling, and that just wouldn’t happen without adding time. I find the stage musical, particularly in the second act, to be a bit jarring, because the time isn’t taken to let emotions breathe at all. It’s a bit like emotional whiplash. This movie generally did a great job letting the emotions breathe, and as I said, Grande did an amazing job in particular, much like Erivo did in the first movie. That said, I wish more time was spent on Fiyero in this film, and less time on adding two new unnecessary songs (that arguably don’t fit the style of the rest of the music). I think that the movie would have benefitted from diving a little deeper into some of Fiyero’s motivations. I was thoroughly convinced of the ladies, but whenever it came to scenes with Fiyero, I was left feeling a little confused as to “what just happened??” For instance, *SPOILERS* when he leaves Glinda essentially “at the altar,” and runs away with Elphaba, there is no actual explanation given, and they jump right to “As Long as You’re Mine.” It just felt a bit disjointed, especially when they took such care to invest in Glinda’s backstory. Speaking of which, while I appreciated the extra storytelling for Glinda, I honestly felt like the new song “Girl in the Bubble” was fairly superfluous, largely because of what they had already established, and because of how well Grande portrayed the role. Erivo also had a new song, “No Place Like Home,” that I felt was even more superfluous (and frankly, annoying), because it definitely felt like thinly veiled political preachiness. On a different note, for those (especially parents) who might be curious, the movie did stay true to it’s PG rating (referring here to “As Long As You’re Mine” and what follows), though what goes on is quite heavily implied, so I would take that into consideration if you have kids who are interested in the show.

Overall, I did enjoy the movie, and thought that it held up next to the first film. They are definitely two different tones, but again, that is largely due to the content of the story in Act II compared to Act I. If musical movies are your thing, then I definitely recommend seeing this film. Who can say if the standard of movie-musicals has been changed for the better? I do believe it’s been changed for the better… But, because of Jon Chu, it has been changed for good. (See what I did there?)