Wicked: For Good—It's Good Enough
Photo Credit: Broadway Direct
By: Isabella Quintero
I have always loved the world of Oz, even before I found out the wicked witch of the west had a heartfelt backstory. As a longtime fan of the original Wicked musical, I have been counting down the days since the first movie came out for the second part to be released.
The second act of the musical happens to be my favorite of the two, so my eagerness to watch Wicked: For Good was through the roof. Every aspect of the first movie that came out just last year exceeded all of my very high expectations. This movie however, struggled to meet some of them.
After patiently waiting a year to watch this movie, I felt perfectly entitled to cancel all of my obligations I had on the premiere night because I was simply too eager to watch it. My three friends and I skipped our dance class, got some Chickfila, and went to watch Wicked: For Good on its Thursday night premiere.
This movie had so many amazing moments and honestly, I would say it's a really good movie overall, but if I were to compare it to the first movie, it was kind of a let down for me.
Now, of course, I won’t just shame every part of it for the entire review. I have 4 specific aspects of this movie that stood out to me—both good and not-so-good.
Plot structure:
Despite my love for the second act of the original musical, I have always felt how rushed the storyline is. I love it so much because that is where most of the story is—it’s all just jumbled up in Act 2. While the storyline is interesting to me, it's also overwhelming, so much so that it kind of disconnects me from the story and the characters.
I had a lot of faith in this movie specifically because of how much time and money they had available to make this adaptation truly wonderful. Shockingly, watching this movie felt pretty similar to watching the second act of the musical. Interesting and fun, but overwhelming and disconnected. This shocks me because the first movie felt so much more spaced out and larger than life compared to the first act of the musical. What really confused me when I watched it was how they had all the time and money in the world, and didn’t use that to expand the clustered storyline and better the choppy ending.
Of course, I know that the Wicked franchise has limitations when incorporating the aspects that come directly from the Wizard of Oz movie, as most of them are copyrighted, like Dorothy herself. This creates a certain difficulty in the scenes where Dorothy is on the yellow brick road (also sort of copyrighted), and the melting scene with the Wicked Witch.
However, I still expected the movie to pivot around these challenges differently, that furthered the story in a better, more efficient way. Specifically the ending. I’ve always thought that the musical ended too abruptly, with the Wicked Witch “melting” and then appearing out of a trap door, greeted by Fiyero, and Glinda finding out the connection between Elphaba and the Wizard, but Elphaba herself never finding out. I appreciate the ending showing what happened to Elphaba after she was “melted” and giving her a happy ending after everything, but that’s a stage musical with limited time and resources. This movie that was sure to go over its estimated box office prediction, could’ve expanded this ending to give a better sense of closure that the musical wasn’t able to give. I really wouldn’t feel this strongly about this had the first movie not done such a great job as stretching out the plot to give more room for a better understanding. Therefore, this movie, which had significantly more plot, should’ve been able to do the same.
There were so many aspects of continuity throughout the first movie, bleeding into this one that I loved so much. One aspect was the foreshadowing of transformations of the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, as well as the scenes passing by the yellow brick road and the bridge, where you see Dorothy and her friends walking towards the Wizard, and then Glinda on her way to find Elphaba. Unfortunately, these pieces didn’t make up for the choppy feeling the structure of the plot gave me, especially with the ending being the same, rushed ending from the original musical.
Musicality:
I have very little complaints about the musicality of this movie. The first movie really blew me away with the songs, and the mixture of these characters’ voices, from Fiyero’s Dancing Through Life, to the citizen’s No One Mourns The Wicked, to Glinda and Elphaba’s joint What Is This Feeling? and Defying Gravity. Going into this movie I expected everything and more from the songs. And honestly, it delivered—for the most part. My favorite song in the entire production is For Good, so my opinion over the entire movie was really up to how good they performed this song.
The songs in this movie are as listed:
Every Day More Wicked
Thank Goodness/ I Couldn’t Be Happier
No Place Like Home
The Wicked Witch of the East
Wonderful
I’m Not That Girl (Reprise)
As Long As You’re Mine
No Good Deed
March of the Witch Hunters
The Girl in the Bubble
For Good
I truly never have complaints about the songs that are majority sung by the citizens of Oz, in the first nor in this movie. They each give such strong emotions as the citizens experience the events of the “wicked witch of the west” believing the lies of the wizard. They spread the gossip they hear through the songs, like “Thank Goodness,” where it’s decided that the witch can be melted.
Glinda goes through significant internal conflicts which are shown in her songs, specifically in Couldn’t Be Happier, where her and Fiyero fight their own internal battles, I’m Not That Girl (Reprise), and a new addition to the Wicked franchise, The Girl in the Bubble. These songs explore the conflicts that Glinda faces on the outside and the inside. In addition to her new position as a public figure of goodness for the citizens of Oz, she’s stuck in this position with the knowledge that her best friend is not a wicked witch, but someone she loves that is only trying to do good. Not to mention her fiance leaves her to be with that best friend, which she comes to terms with in I’m Not That Girl (Reprise), a reflection of how Elphaba felt in the first movie. In Girl in the Bubble, she comes to terms with how much of her life has been a fantasy that she has created for herself, like how she’s never been magical like she dreamed. She acknowledges now after everything, that she’s been trapped in her bubble, and accepts her new life, in the real world with lyrics like “For the girl in the bubble/ The pink, shiny bubble/ It’s time for her bubble to pop.” While the song itself wasn’t necessarily a showstopper in its lyrics, the camera work through mirrors was what I think saved it, as well as the incorporation of Glinda’s younger self, to show her sheltered life and how she’s changed.
Similarly, Elphaba explores her own conflicts, though hers are different, in the songs that she sings, like No Place Like Home, which was also added to this movie, like The Girl in the Bubble, to expand on these characters’ internal conflicts and motivations as their stories conclude. A lot of Elphaba’s conflict is discovered in the first movie, as she’s now set on her mission to save the animals and reveal the fraud that is the wizard. Contrasting to Glinda who’s coming to terms with her conflicts more so in this movie than in the last. Elphaba also battles internal conflicts in No Good Deed where she attempts to save Fiyero from the Oz guards. She’s come to terms with the fact that “no good deed goes unpunished” as she continues to commit good deeds but they are twisted for the public in the Wizard and Madame Morrible’s attempts to cast her as the wicked villain the citizens now believe she is. She is essentially claiming the title of “Wicked Witch of the West” in this song, falling to the claims that she is and always will be evil.
One complaint I do have about the musicality of this movie, something that unfortunately bothered me the entire movie, was Madame Morrible and her truly horrible singing, and honestly, acting. I know this is a musical intended for children to be able to watch, but that doesn’t excuse her strangely awful acting, as I know her from some pretty wonderful roles where she’s acted significantly better than in this movie. I really do feel like Michelle Yeoh was a miscast for this franchise, as she even rejected the role originally because she can’t sing, which happens to be a significant part of the role. In the first movie she didn’t really bug me, I feel like she could’ve been a lot better, but it didn’t necessarily bother me too much. In this movie however, she was maybe my least favorite part. She has a small amount of lines in this movie and she somehow failed at her delivery on each line. Her singing was bad, but her acting was somehow worse.
Of course, I have to talk about For Good all on its own, as it’s my very favorite song out of all of them, and the song this movie is named after. I really loved the way that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande performed this song. You can really tell their chemistry through all of the songs they sing together, but specifically through this one. I did a really good job at holding in my tears throughout the movie, but unfortunately I really can’t listen to this song without crying ugly tears. It’s such a special song for me, and for the story itself. Despite all that these two characters go through, the love, loss, betrayal, etc. they still have so much love for each other. With lyrics like “Because I knew you/ I have been changed for good” they show how much of who they are is because of each other’s influence. With “I ask forgiveness for the things I’ve done you blame me for/ But then, I guess, we know there’s blame to share/ And none of it seems to matter anymore,” they show that they know their faults but they’re willing to forgive as they essentially say goodbye and part ways as best friends. I really feel like this is the perfect song to pull their whole story together, and this adaptation of it is so perfect and wonderful, and honestly saved the whole movie for me.
Choreography:
Musicals are known for their music, of course, but also for their fun, eye-catching choreography to go with these showstopping songs. Something that this movie was significantly missing was the dance numbers. One of the most memorable things from the first movie for me was the dancing, specifically in songs like Dancing Through Life and What Is This Feeling? where there was fun, captivating choreography.
In Wonderful, there were some nods to the first movie with some dance moves by Glinda and Elphaba, and in Every Day More Wicked we see a reflection of the viral book dance from What Is This Feeling. While these small pieces of dancing were so much fun to see, I still felt the absence of dancing as a whole throughout the movie. The dance numbers from the first movie were just so lively that it really gave life to the movie and the characters. I know that this movie is supposed to be darker and gloomier, but there were opportunities to add more dancing that weren’t taken, and honestly I feel like that choice took away from the movie.
Media Influence:
There’s been so much media circulation around this franchise since the release of the first movie last year. From interviews, to performances, to memes, and alarm over the state of the actresses, this movie has really gained a significant amount of traction from the media. Personally, I try not to let the media surrounding movies influence my opinion of them—but sometimes I don’t try very hard.
Something pretty significant that has been circling the media since the first release, is how unhealthy the actresses look after their time working on the set. People change with time, bodies fluctuate regularly, and really, it’s no one’s place to be talking, much less shaming, anyone’s bodies. However, there’s been a lot of talk around how unhealthy the main actresses of this movies’ bodies look. I personally get a little irritated whenever I see anything talking about anyone’s bodies on the internet, but I can understand why this has taken so heavily to internet discussion.
Since the Wizard of Oz original movie came out, this franchise has had it’s controversies, from the Tin Man getting lead poisoning, to the Wicked Witch getting significant burns from special effects, to even little Dorothy who’s actress held off her body’s natural way of growing by use of drugs to keep that youthful look for this role, leading to her death at only 47 years old.
The original movie’s controversies have played a big part in the theories that have circled the media over these actresses—including their alarming lack of body mass compared to the way they looked before filming it. Personally, I don’t really focus too much on the media’s opinions on these topics, but they did continue to cross my mind as I was watching this movie. Whether or not the media is correct on their conspiracies of why they look so drastically different to the beginning of filming, it is still an alarming thought, especially as so many little kids watch these movies, and are influenced so heavily by the looks, words, and actions of these actors/actresses.
Despite those thoughts in the back of my mind, they didn’t necessarily ruin the movie for me, as other people claim it did for them. I saw many flaws throughout it, but I still enjoyed watching this movie. However, the first one definitely takes the cake.
The first Wicked movie was so exciting, fun, lively, and captivating, that this movie, in all of its glory, could not nearly reach its ranking in my heart. If this movie would’ve had a better plot structure, musicality, choreography, and media influence, I would’ve enjoyed it more. That’s not to say that I won’t be purchasing it the second it goes on streaming, and watching it over and over again. I have an unconditional love for these movies, despite the flaws that are clear to me. Even though it didn’t meet my expectations, I am very much still able to push that aside and love the movies regardless.
