Wicked: For Good Almost Sings Its Way Out of WTF Plotting: Review

Welcome back to Oz… Where were we? Wicked: For Good, Part 2 of Universal’s big-budget adaptation of the Broadway musical, is without question the second half of the story begun with last year’s Wicked. In some ways, this gives director Jon M. Chu and writers Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox the advantage of a running start, as we dive immediately into the aftermath of the previous film’s conclusion: “Wicked witch” Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) being declared Oz’s Public Enemy #1, leaving behind her once-and-future bestie Glinda (Ariana Grande-Butera) as she sets out to take down the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum).

It’s unfortunately momentum that’s squandered later on, as For Good features a pace that varies from too fast to too slow, meandering its way through big showcase numbers for its stars before accelerating through big plot points that don’t make quite the impact they should.

For Good is a movie that fully expects you to have seen Part 1 very recently, only utilizing a few dialogue-free flashbacks to remind the viewer of how these characters have changed since their more innocent days. In future months and years, when Peacock subscribers decide to indulge in a cozy all-afternoon double-feature, it will be a pretty seamless viewing experience. But if you’re looking forward to seeing the new movie in theaters and you haven’t seen the first in a while, you might make a point of revisiting it in advance.

Related Video

Here’s more of a “Previously on…” explainer than For Good will give you: In Part 1 (the movie that’s now just called Wicked), Elphaba and her sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) begin attending Shiz University, Elphaba’s natural talent for magic making her very interesting to both professor Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) as well as the mysterious Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) who rules over Oz.

As their education begins, Elphaba and fellow student Glinda (first known as Galinda) become unlikely roommates and then eventually close friends, though both women have feelings for Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), the dashing new student who’s just enrolled. More importantly, when Elphaba finally gets to meet the Wizard, he manipulates her into using her magic to create a pack of flying monkeys, and she’s so horrified that she becomes committed to stopping his cruel treatment of them and the other animals who have become a target of his propaganda machine.

For Good thus begins by diving into Elphaba’s attempts to overthrow the Wizard, which is a tough thing to do as just one person, especially when you’re going up against that aforementioned propaganda machine. She also doesn’t have much of a strategy, beyond trying to unify the remaining animals of Oz against the Wizard and spelling out messages in the sky that are easily ignored. She does still have allies in Glinda and Fiyero, but when Madame Morrible uses her weather magic to conjure up a tornado with a special delivery from Kansas, the story starts to feel more than a little familiar.

The plotting overall doesn’t hold up well under scrutiny. Yet on a scene-by-scene basis, so much of For Good is really affecting — sometimes in ways that feel too close to home. Production on both movies (shot concurrently) wrapped in January 2024, so it’s not like Chu and his collaborators could have possibly been sure how sharp a right turn America would be taking in less than two years’ time. Knowing that, though, doesn’t detract from the raw power of a scene where the remaining animals of Oz flee the home they once knew, because it’s that or imprisonment or worse. Elphaba sings to them about the power of home, and why they should fight for it to be better. But Oz, the animals tell Elphaba, no longer feels like a safe place for them. “It’s rotten.”

Then there’s the Wizard’s big number, “Wonderful” (now a duet with Glinda): “A rich man’s a thief or philanthropist/ Is one a crusader or ruthless invader?/ It’s all in which label is able to persist.” Those are lyrics written in the early 2000s, but that doesn’t change the way they land in 2025. It really fucks with the brain to imagine the current President watching this movie — and we know he loves musicals.

The tragedy here is that as sharply relevant as these early scenes feel, the movie doesn’t deliver on their impact in the end. Additionally, the way in which time passes in For Good doesn’t make any real sense. It’s been “12 tide turns” since the previous movie (so, a year), but once the plot kicks into gear, events are given the epic feel of lasting for weeks, when really taking place over the course of days. This really comes into focus once the plot begins the careful work of running concurrently with the events of the original The Wizard of Oz.

One curious note: While Dorothy’s companions on the Yellow Brick Road are all eventually introduced — no spoilers for how that works out, in case you’re unfamiliar with any of the source material — Dorothy herself is kept just out of frame, allowing for the belief that Judy Garland has somehow come back from the dead to be involved.

In terms of the cast, I really don’t want to call out anyone by name (Michelle Yeoh), but none of the stars who struggled with their singing roles in the first part have gotten any better in the second. This does benefit the film in one big regard: It indicates that no A.I. or other digital trickery was employed to improve anyone’s voices. Which means that when you do hear the world-class vocal performances of Erivo and Grande-Butera, you can trust that they’re real. Boy, they’re spectacular.

Wicked: For Good (Universal)

The two new songs written for this movie (ensuring that unlike Part 1, For Good will be eligible in the Original Song category at the 2026 Oscars) don’t help the pacing. However, they do give both stars incredible showcases: “No Place Like Home” (the previously mentioned song Elphaba sings to the fleeing animals) begins with a quiet power that transforms into a rousing anthem.

And while Grande-Butera doesn’t really need another sad song to sing, “The Girl in the Bubble” does give Glinda a little agency while also giving Chu and cinematographer Alice Brooks the opportunity to play with mirrors and reflections for what’s easily the most visually stunning number in the film. Not to say that the spectacle of Erivo belting out “No Good Deed” in the ruins of a CGI castle is underwhelming. (Production-wise, this movie is stunning — the set design and costumes all truly transportive.)

In terms of the supporting cast, Goldblum does fine work in his limited appearances, while Yeoh makes up for her vocal performance with some dazzling physical movement (she’s one of the greatest action stars ever for a reason). While Jonathan Bailey does a solid job in his supporting capacity (including one scene that might be the sexiest damn scene I’ve ever seen in a movie rated PG), and Ethan Slater gets at least one big moment to remind us that he’s got massive Broadway cred, this movie really is a two-hander. The true tragic love story is Elphaba and Glinda’s, and neither actress holds back in that regard, their chemistry as actors in sync with their harmonization.

It’s wild to think about how the popularity of Wicked (not just at the movies, but as a stage musical and book series) means that for this generation, it’s become the canonical take on the original L. Frank Baum books, first published in 1900. Something similar technically happened before in 1939, with the Judy Garland-starring adaptation then becoming the most popular available iteration of the story. Yet Wicked reinterprets the story so wildly that one wonders how kids today will react to learning that once upon a time, the Wicked Witch was what she said on the tin.

So many post-modern narratives have been built on the idea of subverting the concept of heroes and villains, such as how the classic Watchmen comics tore at the iconography of superheroes. Perhaps that’s why For Good doesn’t successfully sell Elphaba’s decree that “no good deed will I do again,” one of the movie’s many muddled moments. It does, however, reflect an age where every message feels muddled, no hero can be trusted. All we know is that something is rotten here.

Wicked: For Good flies into theaters on Friday, November 21st.