"Wicked: For Good"...Not Great.

[the following review is spoiler-free]

Back in 2003, the world was rocked by a new Broadway musical based on The Wizard of Oz. Stephen Schwartz's Wicked might not have won the Tony that year, but it has been playing on the great white way for over two decades and remains an American cultural mainstay. After years of painstaking development, the highly anticipated film adaptation was released last Thanksgiving. Wicked: Part 1 covered the musical's first act, becoming both a critical and commercial triumph. For months, the green and pink motif was downright inescapable. Millions upon millions of people flooded their local movie theaters to see their two favorite witches on the big screen. This week, over twenty two years since the musical's Broadway premiere, the epic conclusion, Wicked: For Good has finally flown in for the world to enjoy. But after some shockingly lukewarm early reviews, is there enough magic left somewhere over the rainbow?

Wicked: For Good covers the second act of the titular musical, around 3-5 years after the events of the first act. The Good Witch of the North and the Wicked Witch of the West finally reunite after being pitted against each other by the entirety of Oz. About halfway through the film, the events of The Wizard of Oz begin to take place.

I went into my screening of For Good the same way as millions of others, as a diehard musical superfan. I have plenty vivid memories of being in middle school, turning to the musical for comfort, reading all the books, and being absolutely dazzled by the scale, imagination, and majesty of the stage production. For me, Wicked was a family affair, something everyone in my household adored, especially my father, Joe. And when the first part was released last Thanksgiving, you better believe Joe was first in line.

I knew that when it came to the movies, this admiration would be a double-edged sword, because with great love comes great expectations. Universal Pictures, poured a combined $300 million into both films, and due to the ridiculous scale of the marketing rollouts, it can be assumed they put a similar amount of funding into advertising. One of Hollywood's biggest studios put all of their eggs in the Wicked basket, and after the first installment grossed over $750 million, who could blame them?

The second act of Wicked, even just in the stage musical, is noticeably darker than the first. Songs are less catchy, characters are less perky, and the stakes have never been higher. It is a virtually unrecognizable show from the first act, which has a message that can be easily boiled down to "don't judge a book by its cover." The latter half however, is largely about fascism. Audiences not familiar with the source material are going to find this extremely jarring and reasonably so.

A truly massive number of people worked on Wicked: For Good, such is common with a blockbuster of this size. Unfortunately, the work across all the film's different departments varies in quality. It's an incredibly frustrating movie to approach because for all of its strengths, it seems to have equally as many weaknesses.

To be on theme, let's start with the good. Oscar-winning costume designer, Paul Tazewell returns with some of his most breathtaking work to date. At no point was I not utterly blown away with what he was able to accomplish, especially when it came to Madame Morrible's costumes. I'll be expecting to see his name on the next list of Academy Award nominees. Nathan Crowley's production design and Ben Collins' art direction are larger-than-life, beautiful, and fully-realized. The world of Oz feels so much more immersive this time around and the lighting has vastly improved. Visually, this film looks stunning and the music is as good as ever. Ariana Grande's Glinda is given much more to do in the second act, her character feels more complex and it's clear just how much Grande cares about this role. Erivo also gives a great performance as the titular wicked witch, unsurprisingly delivering some truly spellbinding vocals. Frankly, I think her performance adds some much-needed complexity to Elphaba in a way that didn't quite come through in the stage version. I feel confident labeling her as the best Wicked Witch of the West since Margaret Hamilton. Ethan Slater also gives an unexpectedly powerful performance as Boq who feels like an actual consequential character this time.

Wicked: For Good is a film that employs good old-fashioned movie magic and really knows how to tug at your heartstrings. But like I said, it is not without its faults, and this time around, the film's weaknesses are much easier to spot. Other than the production and costume design, every aspect of this film is subject to varying degrees of quality.

Wicked: For Good struggles a lot with pacing. Some scenes hang around for too long, and a select few have absolutely no reason to exist. The script leaves very little room to breathe, every scene feels dedicated to uncovering some secret or tying up a loose end, it can get overwhelming at times.

When Wicked: Part 1 came out, there was one glaring issue everyone could agree on: the lighting. In For Good, the lighting has greatly improved but yet another problem has reared its ugly head and its by-far more noticeable to the untrained eye: the performances. Two in particular: Michelle Yeoh and Madame Morrible and Jeff Goldblum as The Wizard. I am saying this as someone who adores Michelle Yeoh and even teared up at her historic Oscar win, she is downright unwatchable in this movie. Her line delivery is so awkward it's hard to tell if she's even aware of what role she's playing. It's shocking to see a recent Oscar winner give a performance this undeniably cringeworthy, and it doesn't help that she's clearly not a trained singer. It would be completely justified if Michelle Yeoh ended up with a Razzie nomination for her performance, which is not something I ever thought I'd say.

Speaking of singing, Jeff Goldblum's performance feels equally as awkward and miscast. He clearly doesn't have the passion or appreciation for his role like Grande or Erivo have for theirs. To be brutally honest, he can't sing a note, and probably the smartest decision director, Jon M. Chu made for this entire film was to add Glinda's character to the "Wonderful" musical scene so that Ariana Grande's vocals could do most of the heavy lifting. They literally had to rewrite a song so that he didn't have to sing any more than he had to, which begs the question: why not just cast someone who can sing? It is after all, a musical!

Wicked's strongest aspect, whether it be on stage or screen has always been the music, and for the sequel, composer Stephen Schwartz wrote two new original songs for both witches: Elphaba's "No Place Like Home" and Glinda's "The Girl in the Bubble." Unfortunately, both of these songs fall flat and don't really match the musical theater energy of the rest of the soundtrack. "The Girl in the Bubble" is boring, and "No Place Like Home" is clunkily written, feeling completely inconsequential to the story. They add nothing to the film other than a few extra minutes of runtime.

The makeup and special effects in For Good are shockingly hit or miss. The Tin Man looks downright incredible, it's impossible to look away when he appears on screen. The scarecrow however, is a different story. I was absolutely baffled by how frankly...amateur he looks. There is no reason why a film from 1939 should have a more aesthetically pleasing scarecrow than one from 2025. It honestly feels like they spent their whole budget on the Tin Man and forgot about the scarecrow altogether. Like I said, it's almost impressive how this film's strengths match up with its weaknesses.

As a lifelong fan of the source material, Wicked: For Good was much more of a mixed bag than I ever could've anticipated. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed, but overall this film does a decent job at delivering the epic conclusion this story deserves. One thing's for certain though, this is a film that demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible. Above all this is a movie for the fans that have stuck with this story for decades, hopefully they are satisfied with the results.