By Beth Nugent, Third Year, Film and Television
Theatre kids have known since the start that the world would probably be disappointed with the second instalment of Wicked. Act two of the stage production is infinitely worse than the first, and yet, for some reason, we were all still hoping that this wouldn’t be the case for Wicked: For Good (2025). Unfortunately, it suffers the same fate.
Before we dive into the critique, we have to take a moment to give Grande her applause. If Wicked:Part One (2024) was Erivo’s time to shine, Grande took Part Two and knocked it out of the park. Not once does she miss an emotional beat, and she manages to balance the rare moments of humour with some truly heartbreaking scenes.
This isn’t to say that Erivo wasn’t spectacular, because she undeniably was, but she was less present in this movie. It was also the case that a lot of the emotions presented had already been showcased in the first film, so Erivo’s performance felt more like a strong continuation rather than revealing a new facet of her character.
But for two strong performances, there were also two incredibly weak ones. Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum were flat and uninteresting to watch, which would be bad enough if they were just side characters. Unfortunately for everyone, they are the two evil masterminds behind this corrupt government, and so their shortcomings lower the stakes dramatically.
You can’t bring yourself to feel any certain way about the characters because the actors give you nothing. I missed the darker, manipulative side of the Wizard and the power-crazed Madam Morrible; without that grounding, the story felt disjointed, and the reactions of other characters felt slightly dramatised.
The film clearly struggled with its source material, and for good reason. When you have a first instalment with songs such as ‘No one mourns the Wicked’, ‘The Wizard and I’, ‘Popular’, ' One Short Day’ and of course, the showstopping ‘Defying Gravity’, your act two needs to be as strong as possible to try and match that. For Good just doesn’t have the same level of music, and it’s painfully obvious that it’s the inferior part.
Understandably, with For Good being a lot darker in its themes, you can’t have the same upbeat tracks, but that doesn’t mean it has to be drab and consist mainly of reprises from the previous film. That’s not to say that the orchestrations weren’t fabulous, because they undoubtedly were, and I loved hearing musical motifs underscoring emotionally poignant scenes, but the songs themselves just weren’t that good comparatively.
In an effort to reinvigorate the track list of For Good, Stephen Schwartz, the original composer of the Wicked (2003) musical, wrote two original songs for the movie, ‘No Place Like Home’ and ‘Girl in a Bubble’. Both songs stuck out very obviously as new editions, mainly because they just weren’t needed. Neither one added a new perspective that was previously missing, nor did they add anything to the plot. If they did, they would’ve been included in the original musical.
Glinda’s song was fine, but there was a moment near the end of the song when her lips did not match up with what was being heard. It was an error so jarring I was sure I must’ve made it up, until I saw other people look to their friends in confusion. A rookie error like that should not be made in a large-budget production.
In praise of the music, a standout moment of the entire film was ‘No Good Deed’. It was one of the only moments in the movie that raised the stakes high enough to warrant an emotional belting ballad. Pairing this song with the intercutting sequence of Elphaba’s chanting with Fiyero’s torture was perfectly matched to the tone of the song, and I felt the anguish the song is trying to portray.
Similarly, ‘As Long As You're Mine’ had my jaw dropping in the theatre. There’s something so magical about Jonathon Bailey belting in a white flowy shirt. ‘For Good’ was a song many people were excited for, and the performers unsurprisingly did the song justice, but all I could think about was Dorothy in the basement crying her eyes out.
As previously stated, Wicked: For Good has much darker themes, and the moments when they committed to the sinister nature were exceptional. When they used a shallow depth of field on Glinda’s tear-stained face, while she sobbed quietly and watched her best friend get murdered, it created a harrowing moment.
Felix Glanville
We also can’t forget to mention the door split-screen, which happened moments prior, that showed our two leads breaking down whilst no one else was watching. This gave their relationship an emotionally gratifying resolution, even if it was devastating to watch.
Likewise, paralleling Glinda’s walk down the aisle, which was softly lit with saturated colours, with Elphaba's discovery of the caged animals in a dark basement was almost sickening to watch. It was the moments when film form was used in conjunction with the themes of the narrative that were the best moments of the film; it just didn’t happen often enough to save it completely.
While second instalments will seldom be better than the original, I think it’s safe to say Wicked: For Good could’ve been a lot worse. We saw exceptional performances from many actors, were treated to a better colour grade, and we were spoiled with dazzling costumes. While I may have many more thoughts about the narrative itself and its bizarre pacing, we have to appreciate the good where we can. I do, however, think that someone deserves jail time for what they did to Jonathan Bailey’s face in that end sequence.
Featured Image: IMDb / Felix Glanville | Illustration by Epigram / Sophia Izwan
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