Director: Jon M. Chu
Writers: Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox, based on Wicked the musical by Stephen Schwartz, Winnie Holzman, and Wicked the novel by Gregory Maguire, in turn based on the novel The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Marissa Bode, Ethan Slater, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James

The curtain has risen on Wicked: For Good, act two of Wicked, the movie adaptation of the enduringly popular musical stage show that has been much anticipated since its first part last year. It was quite the spectacle of a movie, performed well at the box office and was well-received by audiences and critics alike. Although For Good is technically a sequel in film terms, it is more legitimately a continuation of the same story, thus there is a higher likelihood of it performing well, which is unusual for a standard film sequel. Does For Good continue and end the story satisfactorily with as much spectacle and heart as part one, or does it taper off into the wind behind the Wicked Witch’s broomstick?

***WARNING: there will be spoilers for Wicked (part one) in this review.

At the end of Wicked, we saw Elphaba Thropp (Erivo) denounced as a traitor to Oz and dubbed the Wicked Witch of the West. Five years on and she continues to live in exile and fight for Animal rights. Glinda Upland (Grande), aka Glinda the Good, Elphaba’s former friend, is employed as a spokesperson for the Wizard (Goldblum) and is used as a beacon of light and encouragement for all Ozians. As Elphaba’s other former friends, including Glinda’s fiancé Prince Fiyero (Bailey) and the Munchkin Boq (Slater), rebel in their own situations, Elphaba finds herself being painted as the villain more and more in spite of her attempts to help Animals and set things right with her sister Nessarose (Bode), now governor of Munchkinland, while Glinda starts challenging her own beliefs in what is right and what is wrong.

As many regular theatregoers might tell you, the general opinion is that the second act of a musical show is often the weaker part, other than perhaps the climax that usually features a big, emotional crescendo. This appears to be the case for Wicked in movie form too, as For Good is slightly lacking in much of what made the first act a fairly solid movie musical, including its catchy music, opulent costumes, grand sets and strong performances. For Good tries to take advantage of all the same aspects but to a somewhat lesser degree. It certainly goes darker in the same themes that were tackled in the first film, such as diversity, racism and colonisation, and goes further into more personal issues, such as personal morals and love, but perhaps it’s due to this darkness that For Good has no choice but to trail a little behind its predecessor, losing a lot of the optimism and brightness that was tightly woven through Wicked.

The addition of two new songs, ‘No Place Like Home’ (Elphaba) and ‘The Girl in the Bubble’ (Glinda), added extra musical monologues for the two main characters and helped open up their feelings to the audience during poignant moments, and while their additions made sense, a couple of other songs – ‘As Long As You’re Mine’ (Elphaba & Fiyero) and ‘The Wicked Witch of the East’ (Nessa, Elphaba & Boq) – don’t really pack the emotional punch they ought to. In contrast, ‘No Good Deed’ is fantastically performed by Erivo, drawing the audience into Elphaba’s embracing of her ‘wicked’ side, and ‘For Good’ is the highlight of this second act, with both Erivo and Grande transcending the screen with their emotional performances and deep friendship, clearly sending the message of what both Elphaba and Glinda are giving up for the greater… um… good.

As in Wicked, both Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande smash their performances in For Good, however where Grande’s passion over becoming Glinda had stunted some of her performance in the first hour of Wicked, it is her greatest strength in For Good. This is the film in which it becomes clear that her career has been leading up to this role. She becomes Glinda through and through and fully embodies all the turmoil she endures. Likewise with Erivo, we are drawn evermore into empathy for Elphaba and can easily follow her emotional journey through Erivo’s incredible vocals. Jonathan Bailey’s performance is stronger than in the first film too, with a particularly noticeable improvement in his vocals during ‘As Long As You’re Mine’. We also see a more rounded-out Boq from Ethan Slater, and though we see a little more utilisation of Marissa Bode’s Nessa, she is mainly used for Elphaba’s character progression rather than having some of her own. Jeff Goldblum’s Wizard is still as unlikeable as ever, but he is often lost in scenes that involve Elphaba and Glinda. Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible also remains a sturdy villain, and Yeoh’s performance is, at times, rather scary.

Although my review of Wicked revolved mainly around how it stood in comparison to Gregory Maguire’s novel and Stephen Schwartz & Winnie Holzman’s stage show, I wanted to let this second act stand in comparison only to its own first act. In doing so, it became clear that although For Good took more strength from aspects of the novel (e.g. going darker with its themes) and added on sensibly from the musical (e.g. the additional two songs), it had, as previously mentioned, no choice but to fall a little short of Wicked. It is still quite spectacular, but it didn’t do much visually different that the first and the strength of the performances were left mostly to the last thirty/forty minutes of the film. Perhaps it will serve better once it is released for general viewing so both films can be watched back to back, because together they could be a strong epic. Either way, I feel there’s no doubt that this story and the performances will always remain popular.