“Wicked: For Good” surely attempts to defy gravity more than its predecessor, but it does not fly that high in my humble opinion. There are several lovely musical moments fueled by the undeniable presence and talent of its two main cast members, but the movie did not engage me enough as predictably going along its yellow brick road, and that is a bit of shame.  

As many of you know well, the movie is the second half of the adaptation of famous Broadway musical “Wicked”, and its story begins at the point not so long after the grand finale of “Wicked” (2024). When she comes to learn that the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) is no more than a wily huckster, Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo), a young misfit lady born with green skin, is instantly labeled as the public enemy of Oz by him and his devious associate Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). As she keeps defying against them with her magic power, she is widely known as, yes, the Wicked Witch of the West, and her false infamy only grows more and more around Oz despite her good-willed efforts.

As watching her best friend’s ongoing plight from the distance, Glinda Upland (Ariana Grande), who is now known as Glinda the Good as having the wizard and Madame Morrible behind her back, certainly feels hurt in her heart in addition to being quite conflicted about what she should do. While spreading a lot of good will and optimism around Oz as she has always wanted, she is well aware of how different her public image is from who she actually is, and that makes her all the determined to resolve the conflict between Elphaba and the wizard.

Not so surprisingly, things get messier despite the sincere attempts of these two young ladies on the opposite ends. There is a tragic subplot involved Elphaba’s disabled younger sister and a certain figure who will be one of the main characters in L. Frank Baum’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. There are also more intrigues involved with the wizard and Madame Morrible, and the consequences of their sneaky deeds will remind you of how our world has been negatively affected by fake news. 

Once it begins to overlap with “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and its 1939 movie adaptation, the story unfortunately stumbles more than once due to a lot of plot contrivance. While not showing a lot of that little girl from Kansas and her three accidental friends, the movie keeps focusing on the dynamic relationship drama between Elphaba and Glinda, but their drama is often limited by the pre-determined ending of their story, and we do not get much surprise on the whole. For instance, you will not be surprised a lot about the identity of Elphaba’s biological father if you are familiar with the law of character economy, and I must tell you that, though I did not know much about the Broadway musical version or Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West”, I could easily guess the answer even before arriving at the end of “Wicked”.

 Even though I became more dissatisfied with the movie during my viewing, I admire its top-notch technical qualities. The production design by Nathan Crowley and Lee Sandales, who previously won an Oscar together for “Wicked”, is filled with wonderfully colorful details to enjoy, and the same thing can be said about the costumes by Paul Tazewell, who also won an Oscar for “Wicked” and will definitely get Oscar-nominated along with Crowley and Sandales early in the next year.

The soundtrack of the film is fairly enjoyable, though I have to report to you that there is not anything to surpass “Defying Gravity” and some other catchy songs in “Wicked”. These less impressive songs are fortunately compensated by the effective score by Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the original songs in the Broadway musical version, and John Powell, and Powell, who had some old fun in “How to Train Your Dragon” (2025) in this year, did a splendid job of mixing old and new stuffs together in addition to ably providing extra excitement to several action scenes in the film.  

Schwartz also provides the two new songs for the movie, and they are skillfully performed by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, respectively. Although “No Place Like Home” is rather forgettable, Erivo handles this song with enough sensitivity, and then she has her own grand moment with “No Good Deed”. In case of “The Girl in the Bubble”. Grande brings some genuine poignancy, and she and Erivo always click well together even when they are not supported enough by the weakening narrative of their movie.

Compared to Grande and Erivo, the rest of the main cast members are mostly under-utilized. While Jeff Goldblum has a little nice musical moment in the middle of the film, Michelle Yeoh and Jonathan Bailey do not have much to do this time, and Colman Domingo is totally wasted as being simply demanded to provide a brief voice performance during only one scene.    

In conclusion, “Wicked: For Good” is one or two steps from the expectation built by its predecessor, but its target audiences will not probably mind this at all, while gladly appreciating the efforts of director Jon M. Chu, who also directed “Wicked”, and his cast and crew. I was not bored at least, but I was also not excited or energized after the movie was finally over, and that is all I can say for now.