Wicked: For Good
2½ stars (out of 4)
Director: Jon M. Chu (“In the Heights,” “Crazy Rich Asians”)
Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum
Rated: PG for action/violence, some suggestive material and thematic material
Available: In theaters
The trend of stretching simple stories over multiple movies has become increasingly popular in Hollywood, but Wicked: For Good is a prime example of why it should stop. Despite largely the same cast and creative team as its first act, this Wicked feels flat, drawn out and, frankly, less relevant.
It’s not that Wicked: For Good is awful. Rather, it is average, which is a shame considering the promise of its predecessor. Problems occur when you take a story well told in an evening and drag it out in hopes of increased box-office revenue, and For Good emphasizes these issues. The Broadway musical, on which the movie is based, runs about two-and-a-half hours, making the combined films nearly twice as long as their source material. Worse yet, the movies play as though most of the filler was backloaded. That’s not actually the case because part one added considerable length to the musical’s first act, but that movie’s lighter tone and superior musical sequences save the day. Wicked: For Good is denser, darker and more poorly equipped for expansion.
Since the setup for Wicked – both the musical and Gregory Maguire novel that started it all – supposes that Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the infamous Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, is not a villain, considerable time is spent establishing her as a pure-hearted political dissident. As noted in the first film, the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) is a powerless human who has convinced citizens to follow him by faking magical powers and convincing most that Oz’s harmless talking animals are a threat. Elphaba is rightly disgusted that the Wizard has begun caging these creatures, casting them as a common enemy only to bolster his stature as a protector.
Wicked: For Good takes place five years after events in the first movie, and Elphaba’s ongoing efforts to free animals and disrupt government activities has cast her as an enemy of the state. Simultaneously, the Wizard and his magical enabler, Madam Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), have turned Elphaba’s university roommate, Glinda (Ariana Grande), into a symbol of hope and good. Never mind that Glinda can’t actually perform magic.
The film’s thematic content is timely, but it is also a lot less fun than Elphaba’s introduction to academic life (a large part of the first film). There’s nothing wrong with a dark, meaningful musical, but For Good’s pacing drags -- partially because the music and choreography are not as inspiring. Yes, For Good features iterations of the excellent title song … many times … and, yes, the score is lovely. But there isn’t a single sequence as jubilant and sprightly as Popular, Dancing Through Life or Defying Gravity, part-one numbers that forward the plotting while allowing the audience to relax and just enjoy the spectacle.
Spectacle is a crucial part of any musical, and things are so downtrodden and serious in For Good that one wonders why director Jon M. Chu didn’t opt for a pure dramatic reading. Balancing the inherent absurdity of musical outbursts with deep, political inquiry is a tough task, and Chu falls short this time. In defense of his choices, the second act of Broadway’s Wicked is also darker, but there’s a big difference between waiting 15 minutes for a snappy, one-hour wrap and waiting a year for a several hours of drawn-out explication.
The struggles of For Good are disappointing because the cast is still outstanding. Erivo is brilliant as Elphaba both in dramatic sections and musical numbers. The same is true of Grande who walks a dicey line, making Glinda both infuriating and lovable. The character is seen by others as vapid and image obsessed, but Grande subtly demonstrates that Glinda isn’t dim. Prince Fiyero, love interest to both female leads, is wonderfully portrayed by Jonathan Bailey, who oozes charm.
Goldblum is delicious as the Wizard, an amoral opportunist who appears charming … until one gets to know him. Yeoh’s Morrible is the more obvious villain, and her powerful presence works beautifully in this regard.
Also, Chu is a solid director who knows how to set musical sequences for the screen. He demonstrated this both in part one of Wicked and his fabulous earlier movie In the Heights. Here, however, Chu handcuffed himself, attempting to “remake” a musical while fundamentally changing its structure. There is a reason Wicked was wildly successful on Broadway, and the decision to split the story in two was made for nobody’s good.
Author Bio:
Forrest Hartman is the chief film critic at Highbrow Magazine.
For Highbrow Magazine