Wicked blew me away. After so much time hearing how amazing the stage play is, and what seemed like a long time in preproduction for these movies. Last year’s movie astounded me. From the acting, the amazing music, the set design, and a really emotional story. The only fault I had with it was its pacing, but it is, without a doubt, one of my favorite movies ever. But it was clearly not a full story. While I’ll talk about this movie on its own, Wicked and Wicked For Good are one long movie split into two. This is almost to this movie’s detriment, but even on its own, it is amazing, and put together, this is one giant spectacle worth watching.
This movie’s pacing is just as quick as the first movie. Definitely, a bit of time has passed between the two. Everyone is now in different places. Glinda is now this beacon of hope to the people of Oz, parading around the ideas of the Wizard. Elphaba is on the run and constantly trying to help the animals who are being cracked down on even more, while also trying to convince the populace (to no avail) that the wizard is a fraud. Fiyero is the head of the guards tracking down Elphaba. Vanessa has taken up her late father’s governor position with Boq under her. Everyone is in a different place now, a lot of movement has happened, but underneath everything, there’s this looming bitterness and/or longing for something else for everyone.
The first part of this movie is all about Elphaba trying and failing to convince the people of Oz of the Wizard’s lies and misdeeds, and to help the animals, keep them from leaving. Which is all to no avail. Everywhere she looks, she’s seemingly losing allies and losing more and more favor. This has an emotional impact on her and leads to her making mistakes that end up compounding on each other. One of the most interesting things that goes pretty unexplained in both movies is how the grimmerie really works. It’s almost as if it feeds off of emotion, but in a monkey’s paw type of way, and there are a lot of bad things that happen because of its use, even though Elpahaba has good intentions.
That’s really one of the main beats of this story. Elphaba has good intentions, but the people refuse to ever see her as good. However long they’ve lived cozy under the rule of the Wizard and listened and obeyed the lies that he’s fed them. It is a sort of brainwashing that one person (especially her) can’t undo. But I really loved her struggle to try in this movie. She goes from person to person that she has grown to know to see if they have also fallen under the Wizard’s lies. Some have, some haven’t. It’s interesting because she is the one with actual, real, tangible power. And that has been used against her to effectively make her powerless and constantly seeking whatever help she can get. I loved her resistance and struggle in this movie. She remains my favorite character, and she still has the best moments and songs. Cythia absolutely killed her performance in this movie.
With that being said, I think a big part of this movie is Glinda getting her bubble burst. She finally has everything she has ever wanted. All of the adoration and praise that she could ever ask for, but she constantly has imposter syndrome, basically. She’s always wavering. Ultimately, the decisions that she makes are the driving force for this movie, and I think her arc between the two movies comes to a really nice completion here. I loved watching the different stages of her character, and Ariana acted her ass off.
Jeff Golbum has my heart. He is the wizard. I think I talked about him a solid amount in my Wicked review, but still, in this movie, I’m so impressed by his portrayal of this con artist that somehow comes off just pathetic or gentle old man-ish enough to get people to come over to his side and see things the way he sees them. It’s a very subtle type of charisma that Jeff pulls off flawlessly. I almost believed a lot of the blarney that he spewed in this movie. It was amazing, and the contrast between his character and Glinda is actually very interesting, but that’s a discussion for another day.
The rest of the cast was still amazing. I loved how they built up to the Wizard of Oz being integrated into this story. Of course, we saw the Lion being freed in the last movie. But how the Strawman and Tinman come to be had me amazed, from a story but also musical and visual standpoint. And of course, Dorothy’s entrance was just crazy. Again, their integration was just right for me. They were sprinkled throughout, and we see different parts of their journey, but they are never focused on because they aren’t the focus. Hell, Dorothy’s face is never even shown. But I loved every bit with them in it. In the same way, I loved all the other side characters. Characters that I really didn’t care for too much in the last movie had some great moments in this one, and characters that were great in the last are still good here. They took a handful of characters in certain directions that I never expected, and it really worked. Shout out, Chistery, one of the goat monkeys.
Set design, A+. Visuals, A+. Outfits, A+. Music? A+. This movie felt like it had more of a variety of areas than the first, and they all looked amazing. From the first shot of the yellow brick road to seeing the various states of the Emerald City. The visuals were astounding. Same as the outfits, I loved all the outfit upgrades, especially elphies. Now the music. Man, the music. Wicked’s soundtrack is amazing, but it is a great soundtrack propelled by Defying Gravity, which is still the song that defines these two movies. This soundtrack has one song (No Good Deeds) that comes really close to that for me, but what really wowed me is just how consistent the entire soundtrack was. Top to bottom, I could and have listened to this soundtrack on repeat. It is that good, don’t even get me started on the actual moments that accompanied them in the movie. Wonderful was such a spectacle. No Good Deeds has no right going as hard as it does. Same with March of the Witch Hunters. And For Good is so so sweet. So many of these songs are reprises or use elements from songs in part one, and they twist the words and meanings to make something brand new that is equally beautiful and tragic. Ultimately, this soundtrack wouldn’t be as good without the first part, and it just adds to my point that Wicked and Wicked: For Good are just one movie.
So yeah, Wicked For Good was simply amazing. It will be in my top 3-5 favorite movies this year, just like part 1 was last year. One of the highest praises I can give to something is that I’m glad to be alive to experience it, and as a whole, that’s how I feel about these two movies. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. These movies were amazing, perfect in all the ways that mattered. I could keep gushing about the story, themes, visuals, and music, but really, I just want to end this off by saying I love it when a piece of art means something to everyone involved. From the director, to the actors, to the fans. And you could really feel that from both of these movies, that these were moments for everyone. And that’s a special thing to experience and be a part of, which I’m glad I got to be.
Wicked: For Good – 10/10
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