One year ago, ‘Wicked: Part One’ impressed with its filled-to-the-brim talent roster and an equally stellar lineup of songs that stay with you (even if you don’t necessarily want them to). Not what I’d call a structurally sound picture, its energy alone nudged it into the elite gathering of the best movies of the year.
Now, comes Part Two, ‘Wicked: For Good’….a movie that’s impossible to dislike, though is nowhere near AS good as its predecessor. Some of the decisions director Jon M. Chu makes here feel rushed, clumsy and ill advised – if this story were still on stage, you’d wonder if they were cobbling together the second at double time in order for everyone to make the bus home.
Picking up shortly after the first film left off, we find Galinda (Ariana Grande) taking her place alongside the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) in the Emerald City. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) has officially been branded a baddie…the Wicked Witch Of The West….helping the marginalized and weakening the Wizard’s hold on the people. Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), not without hesitation, became the Captain of the Guard and, with equal reluctance, Galinda’s fiance. The battlelines have been set.
…oh, and here comes someone named Dorothy.
The cast is still great, though Erivo wins the day with another performance that breaks your heart one minute, then blows your hair back the next with its sheer, dominating power. Grande, while good, dissolves more and more into a caricature the longer this goes, while Goldblum and Yeoh seem resigned to take a back seat the visual and musical fireworks. Entertaining? Sure. Magical? Meh.
Other than box office returns, was there a great reason to split ‘Wicked’ into two chapters and release them one year apart? And as I ponder that question, I realize when big money is involved, the decision is never in question. Silly me.
If you’re a fan of ‘Wicked’, ‘For Good’ will likely hit the right notes for you. If you’re not……hey, I know it ain’t perfect, but just relax and let the faithful have fun. They waited a whole year to get back on this yellow brick road.