Wicked For Good: Part two of musical movie loses its spell without the razzle-dazzle distraction

If you went to see the film adaptation of Wicked at the cinema, odds are, someone around you was openly weeping as the music soared as high as Elphaba did above the skies of the Emerald City.

It was probably you.

The movie was a long-time coming, some two decades after the Broadway sensation debuted, itself inspired by the 1995 book by Gregory Maguire, which was a revisionist retelling of The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West.

Maguire’s book and, to a lesser extent, the subsequent stage and film versions, recast Frank L. Baum’s villain as a misunderstood outsider, political revolutionary and scapegoat for a fascistic ruler.

The first film defied not just gravity but expectations. It was a rousing, grand musical with verve and gumption, and a vast improvement for those who found the stage production too schmaltzy. Hey, not everyone loves that play.

Buoyed by the waves and waves of a promo tour on steroids, Wicked became a moment, with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s off-screen lovefest running parallel to the film’s emphasis on the friendship between Elphaba and Galinda.

It was hard to not be carried off by the hype. But repeating that a mere 12 months on was always going to be difficult, especially as those familiar with the stage production knows, the latter half of the play, now adapted as Wicked For Good, aka part two, doesn’t have a climactic belter like Defying Gravity.

What it does have is For Good, the song this film was named for, and at least in that, the movie, directed again by Jon M. Chu, hits similar emotional highs for those few minutes. The rest of the film? Not so much.

Wicked For Good lacks the dynamism and energy of its predecessor. Without the razzle-dazzle seduction and distraction double-punch of the first part’s many, big, all-in numbers, it falls flat much of the time.

It is so much more obvious the film, which adapts its story from the stage production and less directly from Maguire’s thematically rich book, is a frustratingly shallow story that lacks nuance and depth.

Wicked For Good picks up right after Elphaba (Erivo) fled from Emerald City after she discovers the magically impotent Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) is responsible for stripping away the rights of anthropomorphic Animals to consolidate his power as a dictator.

Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) orchestrates much of the evildoing, although the film is muddled on which of the two it considers the real villain, often treating the Wizard as pathetic rather than menacing.

It’s a strange and ineffective characterisation because the current real-world analogy for the Wizard is obvious, and even though Wicked For Good was written and filmed before the past 12 months, it feels completely removed from this moment when it merely dips into political allegory.

The Wicked movies sheath themselves in the virtue of a story about autocracy and resistance, but doesn’t bother putting in the work of actually saying anything of real substance.

It’s disappointing and lightweight, which prompts questions of whether there’s a more potent version that was left on the cutting room floor out of cowardice – the film was edited this year, during the current US administration.

When there are superb genre works this year such as the second season of Andor, what is this weak-sauce?

Glinda (Grande), having now dropped the “a” from her name, is a figurehead for the regime, paraded out as a mascot for propaganda purposes. Glinda the Good’s job is to cheer up Ozians, selling the illusion that life is great.

Elphaba has been monstered by the Wizard and Morrible as someone to be afraid of, a bogeyman to blame for everything. She disrupts the building of the yellow brick road, which is being paved with the enslaved labour of Animals, while still pining for Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who secretly is doing the same while pretending to lead the hunt for her on behalf of the Wizard.

Glinda is struggling to reconcile her role as mouthpiece with what she knows to be true, which is that she’s on the wrong side.

The film may be called Wicked For Good, and Elphaba is the eponymous witch but part two is actually Glinda’s story. In a blatant case of category fraud, Grande is being campaigned for the supporting actress trophy at the Oscars when she is very obviously the lead here.

Glinda has the meatier character arc, and seemingly more screentime. That in itself is inoffensive except that it has the effect of diminishing Elphaba’s significance in a screenplay that doesn’t recognise she needed more to do.

That’s not a slight on Erivo, who has excellent screen presence and astonishing pipes. But Elphaba is an afterthought in a film which bears her legend in the title.

Despite being 30 minutes shorter than part one, Wicked For Good feels dragged out, but also rushed at the same time, as if all of its subplots are left unfinished. It speaks to the overall feeling of how unsatisfying it is.

It also over-corrected on some complaints the first film wasn’t bright or colourful enough and now it looks washed out.

Maguire wrote an impressive book that forcefully explored facets of fascism and power, and how propaganda is wielded by a dictator to manipulate the populace. There is precious little of that in Wicked For Good.

There is also none of the book series’ nods to the wider underground resistance that bubbles, dooming the Ozians to be little more than the dumb muppets the Wizard and Morrible take them to be. What a cheery picture to paint in 2025.

The Wicked movies don’t have to emphasise its political foundations, just as the stage production didn’t, that’s their choice. But while the first film at least kicked off a rich story about friendship between two very different people, Wicked For Good didn’t finish it.

By the time the credits rolled, you’ve forgotten why Elphaba and Glinda care about each other at all. This film didn’t put in the work to remind you, relying instead on latent good will and some googly-eyed staring.

Without those big musical numbers to wave a wand and cast a spell, it’s not enough. It’s not nearly enough.

Rating: 2.5/5

Wicked For Good is in cinemas on Thursday, November 20