'Wicked: For Good' Spoiler-Free Review
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The second half to the widely anticipated musical hits theaters, like thunder to the lightning strike that was last year’s Wicked. Being one of the most, if not the most, anticipated movies of 2025 comes with the immense pressure for director Jon M. Chu and Universal to deliver. Good news, For Good: the film adaptation had its very own yellow brick road.
Wicked fans were already invested in seeing how the follow-up would deliver. Given the extra screen time advantage by making two movies out of one play, not much had to be put on the cutting room floor. There are many years of story to go through—from Elphaba’s schooling all the way to her leading a one-woman rebellion against the authoritarian Oz, who have labeled her as this Wicked Witch. All that’s needed was to focus on what worked in the first half and copy the story beats from the original source material.
Does part two of Wicked deliver?
It’s a mix. While this climactic adaptation will appease its avid fanbase, a few attributes prevent this one from living up to its predecessor. The first song fails to carry the electricity necessary to push the story into its third act. After all, that is how the play is split up at its intermission. The first act is establishing the friendships/rivalries at a Hogwarts-like Shiz University and the second act transforms Elphaba’s goals, from fitting in at school to fighting for equality, so that the land of Oz could be a green utopia it declares itself. Wicked is a twisted take on the legendary Wizard of Oz. While it makes the Wicked Witch the hero and Glinda a trained manipulator, everyone who knows the classic knows how the story ends: a bucket of water melts everyone’s problems away. That expectation is there ever since Elphaba is first declared an enemy of the state by the end of part one, so a lot of Wicked’s third act is waiting around until the inevitable splash.
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The issues of pacing and the expectation of tying Wicked to the Wizard of Oz are problem traits inherited from the play. A lot of the energy and drive that characters had in the first Wicked are absent from this one, at least at the start. Granted, the students have graduated into working for an Oz that is far more tyrannical than what they first envisioned. People like Nessa, Boq, Fiyero, even Madame Morrible have every reason for lower spirits. The problem with that is it translates as lower energy for the audience to get back into this world, long enough to see it through to the conclusion.
Some of the acting underperformed, and given how striking everyone was in the rose-colored Oz of the first Wicked, a lot is expected from these actors that is not delivered straight away. As the songs get more energetic (for example, “Wonderful” and “No Good Deed”), the heart and soul of the first film creeps back in, if not a little unstable. It’s enough to get through to the tear-jerky “For Good” song this movie is named after, carried hard by its two female leads, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
In short, this movie may not work all by itself, but it’s not meant to. This is a two-parter, as inseparable as Elphaba and Glinda, that now completes an adapted tale of self-emancipation. Wicked: For Good is a movie meant to be seen right after seeing the first Wicked.
Rating: 7/10
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Source(s): US Magazine, Broadway, IMDb
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