Moviegoers across the world are about to discover something that theater fans have already known for years: The second half of Wicked is far from Good.
The first half of the musical features all its most memorable songs and has enough of an identity to carve its own path despite its origins as, essentially, The Wizard of Oz fan fiction. The closer the material gets to that original text, the deadlier it becomes, and Wicked: For Good is almost entirely reliant on references to the beloved classic.
The second half of the play has no songs worth mentioning, so the movie version attempts to fix this by adding multiple original ones — but they’re even worse. It feels like any other modern update of beloved intellectual property, in which they hope the audience will clap and bark like seals at the mere appearance of a reference they understand.
Remember the Cowardly Lion? Here’s how he got so cowardly! You know the Tin Man? Well, he was once a normal man! The movie opens with the Yellow Brick Road being paved! It’s Easter egg cinema at its worst.
Now demonized as the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba lives in exile in the Ozian forest, while Glinda resides at the palace in Emerald City, reveling in the perks of fame and popularity. As an angry mob rises against the Wicked Witch, she’ll need to reunite with Glinda to transform herself, and all of Oz.
Wicked: For Good is so patently silly that it makes you wonder how and why Wicked became such a long-lasting phenomenon in the first place. It’s so far removed from the highs of the first film, and that first half of the play — the earworm that is “Popular,” and the rousing barn-burner finale that is “Defying Gravity” — that it retroactively taints the entire experience and will have you questioning if you were too kind to part one.
Wicked: For Good lays bare that splitting the adaptation into two parts was an absolutely disastrous decision. They turned a two-hour, 45-minute play (with intermission!) into a nearly five-hour film, and you feel every second of filler. It’s vamping at feature length! One could feasibly watch the entire Broadway musical twice in the time it would take to marathon both parts of the movie adaptation, which is absurd.
The simple fact is, Wicked: For Good becomes insufferable as soon as it ties itself in knots to connect to The Wizard of Oz, saving all the inane plotting for this one. Ariana Grande’s performance is consistent here, but Cynthia Erivo feels lost at sea and bored with the terrible material and arc for her character, a noticeably less animated performance than before. And don’t get me started on the washed-out and ugly digital look of it all, despite the colorful sets.
It’s shocking how much worse Wicked: For Good is than last year’s blockbuster smash hit. It’s so DOA that the packed house audience I watched it with sat there in stunned silence throughout, every joke and emotional beat landing with a thud to the degree that the dead air really filled the space. That was not the case with part one. It’s one of the biggest disappointments of the year, though it’s sure to make so much money that its director is already threatening a part three.
What other critics are saying: The response is more mixed than it was for Wicked. The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin calls it “irritating” and says “the corporate stretch-it-out-and-wring-it-dry approach here has been deadening.” Pete Hammond at Deadline loved it, however, writing, “the visual effects are first rate” and that it “flies even higher” than the first. Wow!
How to watch: Wicked: For Good hits theaters nationwide on Friday.
For more reviews, check out my weekly ‘Siskel & Ebert’-style movie review podcast ‘Roger & Me’ wherever you get your podcasts, every Friday.