Wicked: For Good (2025) Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt98AlBDI9Y

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Musicals have indeed been holding their own in the 2020s and Wicked has been proof in the first half of the decade because not only did it blow audiences away to the point of being a Best Picture nominee, but that director Jon M Chu was also given the chance to tell the Gregory Maguire/Stephen Schwartz story to it’s entirety by splitting it in half.


PLOT


Formerly billed as Part 2, Wicked: For Good takes place a few years after the events of Part 1. With Madam Morrible and the secretly non-powerful Wizard of Oz spreading a propaganda campaign to maintain public control by deeming her the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba Thropp has been fighting for animal rights and hides in the forest. Glinda Upland the Good Witch has gained the opportunity to be the Wizard’s spokesperson and is given by Morrible a technological invention of a bubble transport & a wand to disguise the fact she has yet to unlock her own true magic; That has always bothered since childhood to not have pull it off after all of yearning. With a yellow brick road being completed as a pathway to Emerald City, Prince Fiyero Tigelaar, now Captain of the Gale Force, intends to find Elphaba, despite Glinda believing she wouldn’t want to be. When Elphaba later finds other talking animals leave the land of Oz to protect their rights, she does try to encourage them to stand up to the Wizard. That does not go to her favor when a lion cub she saved grew up to be a coward and exposes she was the one who used the Grimmerie to give wings to the monkey guards spying wherever. Her sister Nessarose has inherited governorship of Munckinland after her father’s passing, which only makes the latter all the more bitter towards the former. When her boyfriend Boq tries to leave to see the arranged wedding between Glinda & Fiyero, she takes it personal by immediately banning Munckins including him from leaving. Elphaba tries to do right by her sister by enchanting her silvers to help her fly. This does make her happy only temporarily once Boq feels he is not needed and admits he loves Glinda more. Enraged, she uses the Grimmerie to try binding him with a love spell but it backfires and it causes his heart to shrink. Elphaba’s only attempt to save his life with the spell-book resulted in transforming him into a tin man. Due to his new appearance, it angers him and he calls her sister the Wicked Witch of the East. Elphaba does return to Emerald City upon learning of the wedding and Glinda & the wizard do seem to convince her in dropping her fight for animal rights under the condition of freeing the monkeys. That doesn’t go as planned either because one monkey named Chistery shows her a prison full of animals that have lost their voice, including Doctor Dillamond. Upset of the Wizard counting to be two faced, she frees them all which ruins the wedding. Fiyero would leave with her once the opportunity is given, but with Glinda realizing he loved her friend more, she uses her heartbreak to tell Morrible the best way to lure her out again would be spreading a rumor that Nessarose would be in anger. As Elphaba & Fiyero profess their love, the former has a vision of a falling from the sky. This comes true as she says it because Morrible summons a tornado that causes a house to emerge from Kansas and it fatally crushes Nessarose, knowing a rumor wouldn’t fool her enough. The house occupied a young lady, Dorothy Gale, and her pet dog Toto. She is given Nessa’s slippers by Glinda who tells her to follow the yellow brick road to Emerald City if she wants to find her way home. Elphaba would arrive as expected, angry that the words of her friend led to her sister’s death and they fight long enough for the Gale Force to arrive. Continuing to profess his love, Fiyero threatens to kill Glinda if she isn’t let go. As she leaves with all the monkeys to the abandoned castle of Kiamo Ko, she senses him being beaten and left in a field. She tries summoning a protection spell meant to make him invincible but because she doesn’t see the end results, she believes to have failed again and accepts the wickedness everyone thinks she has. Unbeknownst, the spell turns him into a scarecrow which will accurately lead to him not being harmed ever again. Dorothy reaches Emerald City with him, as well as Boq and the lion. What the Wizard asks in return of helping the girl get home is for the Wicked Witch of the West to be killed and proof of it with access to her broom. As Glinda sees Boq rally a mob, she becomes lamented of how so many lies have consumed Oz that she confronts Morrible of the tornado, only to be rebuffed by her. She rushes to Kiamo Ko to warn her friend of the mob, having just abducted Dorothy and demands her sister’s slippers. With Chistery unable to find Fiyero’s body, Elphaba considers surrendering. However, she tells Glinda to keep the truth from the people and gives her the Grimmerie. As the good witch hides, Elphaba allows Dorothy to douse her in water, causing her to presumably melt as many theorize to have been possible. As Glinda grieves over losing her friend, Chistery regains his voice and gives her an elixir bottle that belonged to Elphaba. Returning to Emerald City, she confronts the Wizard of it. Knowing that he would drink such a bottle and the one Elphaba had belonged to her mother Melena (Courtney-Mae Briggs), she deduces that he is her biological father as a result of an affair. Realizing he is responsible for the daughter of his only daughter’s he listens to Glinda’s demand to leave. When he does so around the same time Dorothy does, Morrible would also be apprehended for all she’s done. Resuming to the opening of Part 1, Glinda does admit to Munchkinland that Elphaba was her friend and instantly chooses to re-establish animal rights by giving their voices back. As that happens, It is revealed Elphaba faked her death with a trapdoor and she leaves Oz when reuniting with Fiyero. Believing to have changed for the better after all that has happened, the film ends with Glinda’s power officially unlocking as that opens the Grimmerie.

THOUGHTS

It was a big surprise to realize this sequel did not match the success of its predecessor come awards season, due to scoring zero Oscar nominations. That did not really bother me because awards & nominations are never the main reason I watch movies to begin with. I was seated as a casual Wizard of Oz fan wondering how the remainder of this story would conclude. Chu reached expectations here because everything that worked the first time around works again. The feeling of immersive-ness is still present due to the dedicated production/costume design. That helps make Alice Brooks Craft beautiful cinematography to the board. When the Broadway poster gets recreated in the final frame, it made the whole experiences worth it. The visual effects are still on point for the various landscapes of Oz and the talking animals, yet I’m still surprised how natural it was for all talking animals to be part of the scenery, like the Cowardly Lion. As much as I wish Colman Domingo’s voice performance should’ve been kept from marketing for the sake of a bigger surprise, he still delivers in making him live up to the insecurities we’re expected from the character, as well as understand his resentment no matter how annoying he may sound about it. As for the makeup, it remains stunning when seeing Glinda embrace her green beauty, but then full of shock seeing Boq’s intense Tin Man transformation, which can also be said with Fiyero becoming Scarecrow. Due to not reading the book, this was the biggest surprise for me. The moment this musical begins with ‘Every Day More Wicked’, you know you’re in for a whole other experience with emotions you didn’t know you had. From start to finish, I think the reason this second half is as good as the first because it further teaches the true lesson how true goodness comes from action & not perception and as long as you continue to accept yourself, then you’re living life to the fullest. With respect to Bethany Weaver being the stand-in for Dorothy, not showing her beautiful face was the wisest of decisions here because that would’ve been distracting us from the two leads who are to be front and center. Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande continue to create a sisterhood level of chemistry due to their characters on opposite ends trying to be on the same side. The former’s Elphaba is the protagonist you’ll never want to stop to rooting for since she’s the selfless kind that is fighting for the right cause. She keeps on wanting to help the animals because she relates to the discrimination and doesn’t want any living thing to suffer like she did. Her song ‘No Place Like Home’ does reflect that optimism she aims to bring to life and then ‘No Good Deed’ became an appropriate example of self doubt after many’s attempts of good intentions backfire, which is why she is willing to abduct Dorothy just to get the one memory she has left of her sister. Grande remains amazing as Glinda because being good is all she wants to represent, but is afraid of backing it up towards the right people. ‘The Girl in the Bubble’ is the example that explores her insecurity especially when she is in a predicament where she wants to ignore her privileges in order to understand what being good is all about. Her being born without magic was not easy for her because ever since she was a kid, she felt that was the only thing that made her special. Her mom did share the right advice that being loved is enough, as long as it is for her genuine self and not what she disguises. That kicks in for her when she slowly accepts she isn’t really popular as she grew up fantasizing. While it was on her to not even ask Fiyero how he really felt, explaining the need to reprise “I’m Not That Girl”, the heartbreak feeling is universal and that led to the worst time of clouding judgment becoming a big domino effect. She definitely didn’t want Nessa to die and I didn’t want that either no matter how self absorbed of a tyrant Marissa Bode portrayed her, but she suggested Elphaba being in fear over her sister being in danger just to make her feel miserable and it worked just not the way she expected. When that happened, that was the final straw in needing to set things right the way her friends has been trying the whole time. She tries protecting her at the end because she doesn’t want anymore causalities to occur, knowing she can’t bare it, thus leading to reasonable heartbreak when presuming her true friend was gone. The duet ‘For Good’ is breathtaking because it is the true definition on how it feels when having a significant relationship and the gratitude that comes from it. Glinda is moved from Elphaba’s past actions and the latter is moved in return from how much she tried to be reasonable. In the end, Elphaba chooses to fake her death because nothing would really change as long as she was around. If Glinda ever really knew, it would leave her in all the more heartbreak but it becomes her drive to truly live up to her name moving forward. Knowing that she’s been changed and that she’s proud of it is why her magic unlocks at the very end. Knowing this will then another aspect of motivation to keep the pace going if she wants to honor all that suffered before her rule. On the bright side, Elphaba has someone who was selfless from the start and remained so even after drastic changes. Jonathan Bailey still steals hearts as Fiyero because he’s gone from carefree to devoted in sticking up for others and he did so for the not so wicked witch every chance he had because that’s how much he loved her. Through the song “As Long As You’re Mine”, it’s a moving moment to see them be vulnerable for a change after their meet-cute in Part 1 and how they accept each other always & forever. The fact he came back for her even after his changes proved nothing can stop a man who knows who he loves most. Ethan Slater definitely got under my skin as Boq because he was far too naive thinking Nessa would accept leaving her for Glinda, which only leads to him being full of rage when becoming the Tin Man. If you didn’t think he was pissed, that stare towards Glinda during “March of the Witch Hunters” would sell it for you. If Elphaba was the hero the whole time, some can forget who the true enemy was. Jeff Goldblum definitely was quite deceitful as the Wizard who did everything he could in controlling Oz’s narrative and his song ‘Wonderful’ was all about his intent to manipulate. He does the right thing in leaving because realizing he lost a daughter was where he couldn’t fathom the damage he caused. The true puppet master however goes to Madam Morrible as Michelle Yeoh showed her to have calculated everything in ambitious fashion. Because of her ruthlessness she hid with a smile, she had to be overthrown and Glinda of course does the right thing sending her away however long necessary. Had she found anything close to reason with either which she had under her wing, she could’ve gotten away with future schemes. With her stripped from power, there’s no denying Glinda will be a thousand times better of a leader than her and the Wizard combined. There are many things that make this sequel worthwhile, but then there’s a few confusing moments where I understand why Part 1 would be the superior. For example, I understand that Morrible would accurately call Elphaba armed along with being dangerous in her propaganda, but it’s not a big sell if the newspapers are implying the broomstick is what makes her armed and not the Grimmerie. Also, it’s totally on her to not bother telling Fiyero she arranged for him to marry Glinda. She doesn’t know of his love for Elphaba, so scheming like this gets her nowhere. Moving on, when did Elphaba & Glinda ever go to the woods with Nessa, Boq & Fiyero during their tenure at Shiz University? I know they must’ve had a lengthy semester, but this is the only time I feel the bond between them is all forced since I don’t know what would have inspired all five of them to go out together. It’s then totally on Elphaba for not pulling Nessa away from the Grimmerie when she tried using it. She was on a wheelchair at that point, so she could’ve turned her around. And if Fiyero is on Elphaba’s side, why doesn’t he scour for proof so he can spill the beans that the Wizard is powerless? If he doesn’t want her to be on the run anymore, this would’ve been beneficial. And if he couldn’t do anything dumber, it’d be not letting the monkeys take him away to retreat with Elphaba. It then felt so dumb for Elphaba to ask him if they’ll see each other again. He turned his back on the city before she unknowingly turned him into a scarecrow, so it’s not like he’ll undo his decision. And if I’m gonna get into continuity errors that drove me nuts, I’ll give one for how Elphaba still has her broom between takes when she’s supposed to drop it during her fight with Glinda. Back to the story, the Gale Force should’ve been much closer to Glinda when it came to trapping Elphaba, to the point where they should’ve not allowed their fight to play out the way it did, even if it meant Fiyero would’ve not interfered in time. I then understand that Elphaba’s grief for Fiyero is the reason she accepts her wickedness but if she’s willing to abduct Dorothy to take back her sister’s slippers, then that would’ve been another good time to use the Grimmerie no matter the consequences. The last thing I could say that has confused me deeply is the chain reaction that goes into the climax. If you’re not gonna tell us Dorothy gets back home since this is a different iteration of The Wizard of Oz, you could’ve explained exactly how Glinda has political power to be trusted after banishing the Wizard and apprehending Morrible within hours. Hell, Morrible could’ve killed her in the same over the top fashion Jane did with Nessa and skip asking for forgiveness if she didn’t want to pay for her crimes. If you can still ignore these issues however, then you can still appreciate Wicked: For Good as a great musical sequel that brought the right amount of plot elevation in order to give a proper conclusion for the overall story. If you enjoyed Part 1 dearly and want to see how it all truly ends, see this now.