Wicked: For Good [2025]
“I’ve heard it said… That people come into our lives for a reason…”
And we’re back. It’s 2025, it’s getting real cold outside, and Wicked: For Good has finally made it to theaters. Following the release of its part 1 last year, For Good [not just called “Wicked: Part 2” for reasons I’d find difficult to justify even if I knew them] has some very big spells to cast, and mostly does a fine enough job of it, but struggles pretty heavily when compared directly against its predecessor. This is my 1,000 tracked/ rated movie here at CacciatoReviews so, has this part 2 of a film I forgot to review [but loved <91>] come out to change me for the better, or is it only satisfactory enough to have done so for good?
Banished from a society that refuses to understand her, Elphaba continues her work as the “Wicked Witch of the West” in an attempt to free Oz from the control of their deceitful master while both he and Madame Morrible attempt to manipulate their populace [and her best friend] against her.
I’m going to be talking about the films here with only brief mentions of the play. I say this only so I don’t have to continually specify that I’m talking about the movie whenever I mention “Wicked” as an entity. I know it exists, and I know it came first… But this is about the films.
Wicked is, in a nutshell, great. Based on the first book of the 1995-Current series The Wicked Years, Wicked tackles some pretty intense topics [silencing of marginalized voices, outright racism, abuse of government power… You know, things that we in no way have any modern experience with in the real world 😇] while disarming you through the saturated visuals of the land of Oz, music fit enough to make the stage production the second-highest grossing of all time, and an intricate and moving relationship between its main characters, who find themselves fighting for the same goodness, but torn between the powers to do so. It’s a wonderful story that deals with issues people really need to engage with, and does so in an accessible and entrancing way — something musicals do better than most things in general… And let me tell you, the music within these two films is simply stunning. This will come as no surprise to already Ozians, though I’m sure there was some anxiety over how the films would handle their favorite tunes. While I can’t speak for the community entirely, I can say that I’m very pleased with how the films handled each of the tracks I’ve listened to for over a decade now, and I’m sure that whichever version of the OST you hear first will be the one you prefer. While the first part of the series holds the vast majority of the production’s most popular songs, similar to Waitress’ She Used to be Mine, the power of For Good will give you all the excuse to cry in public that you’ve ever needed. Unfortunately for Wicked: For Good… That’s the highest praise this part-2 is going to get.
The film is 23 minutes shorter than its companion, but manages to feel longer due to a lack of patience around certain subjects, an insistence that you care about others, and a PG rating so forced that a number of scenes feel entirely neutered [even a touch silly] just so the studio could appeal to the widest audience possible. It’s all very unfortunate because, similar to the first movie, it’s also all very beautiful. The production design, the music, the costumes; it’s all perfectorially Galindafied. So… What is this feeling? Spoilers, it’s disappointment. Not disappointment at what is here, but disappointment at what could have been [an irony, given the plot of the films, that is not lost on me]. There’s not much within the confines of For Good that’s “bad” or even “mediocre”, it’s just that there could have been more. The film rushes through plots teased to us during part-1 without really dealing with them in any way, instead choosing to either resolve them almost instantaneously with very little justification [Nessa, looking at you] or simply glossing over what they mean in a larger context [“animals” losing their voices, anyone?]. I would have loved to spend a little more time developing some of these things so that I actually felt engaged in what the deeper themes of the film were, rather than simply getting pushed through them so that the songs could be sung and the credits could roll. I don’t think fans of Wicked are confused as to what they’re getting into, and they already sat through one 2:40 film so… Just give us another one and trust that we care.
Or don’t… Because you didn’t.
As mentioned, somewhere else the film really struggles is with its ironclad insistence that it maintains the softest possible PG rating. Two scenes in particular require a certain level of intensity for buy-in… And the studio's insatiable desire for a family-style audience damages them so deeply that one, which should be heavy and frightening, is just “kinda neat” and another, which should be tragic and positively devastating, is… Almost comical in the way it’s presented. I’m not talking blood-and-guts or profanity or nudity or anything, I’m just talking intensity. I think the characters/ actors do a lot with what they’re presented with, but what they’re presented with should have been so much more. This is a deeply emotional story about so many important things and various forms of loss… Make me feel something, and not just through the trick of music. Now, don’t go finding my address through the IP of my website, Wickedheads; I love this soundtrack SO much, but let’s also not pretend that music isn’t a surefire way to pull at the heart and, though the majority of what we know and love comes from the first part of this franchise, the music here does most of the heavy lifting. While maybe an odd criticism of a musical — most musicals are largely carried by their songs… That’s uh… Sort of the point of a musical — in Wicked: For Good the story between the lyrics doesn’t add meaningful context to anything you already know and love. I didn’t walk away with a new understanding of any of my favorite songs, and I really would have liked to.
I couldn’t be happier.
It’s not all bad here, and I don’t want to give that impression. In fact, very little of what Wicked: For Good offers is “bad” in most any way. There’s some cornball jokes that don’t necessarily land, a twist whose justification makes absolutely no sense, and, as already mentioned, I wanted a lot more from a lot of what I was given, but that doesn’t mean that what’s here isn’t worth your time. If you liked Wicked, you’re going to like this, no doubt, and For Good mostly only suffers when compared against it. It’s difficult to view any sequel [especially a “part-2”] as an entity entirely its own but, looked at as such, this is plenty fine, and my rating reflects that perspective. Am I going to see it again in theaters or make an effort to watch it once its streaming… No, not likely. Would I go see a double feature with an intermission though… Probably, yes. I love this world, I love being a part of it, and I think that these two films do a mostly great job of putting you in a place where the happenings feel uneasily familiar, but your surroundings are fanciful and safe.
Performances across the board here are fantastic with Cynthia Erivo back in command of the driven and conflicted Elphaba, while Ariana Grande-Butera was [quite possibly] born to play the role of the aloof-but-fierce Glinda, and the pair have a chemistry and flair the likes of which were no doubt cast straight from a Grimmerie. Though I think a lot of the visual effects work in both of these films is fairly mediocre with lots of plastic-looking animals and backgrounds, the execution in certain settings is absolutely staggering. Scenes where Elphaba is flying across the sky on her famous broomstick with her exaggerated cape billowing out behind her are particularly striking, while Alice Brooks’ cinematography captures many moments in more touching detail than some of my above complaints may have suggested possible. The costumes in For Good are no less stunning than its predecessor, and are likely to net Paul Tazewell another series of awards, while the score of the film is sure to be nominated again as well, though it has some very stiff competition from Jon Thor Birgisson and Alex Somers in Rental Family.
I wanted more from this, and that’s always an interesting criticism to examine. Is that bad? Maybe. Is it actually an accolade to say I would have sat through an additional 23-minutes of film to flesh out minor characters and justify flip-floppy motivations? Yeah, kind of. Maybe we’ll get a Midsommar Director’s Cut-style release in a couple of years that adds all this time and information in but, at the end of the day, all we can see and experience and judge, is what we have in front of us. And what we have in front of us is something that could have [should have] been more. More touching, more painful, more loud, more vibrant… Just, more. I felt the ups and downs just like everyone else in that theater did, and I cried during the performance of For Good right alongside the 8-year old girl next to me who gasped and hid her eyes every time somebody kissed onscreen, but there’s just so much of this experience left in the wings, that I can’t help but wish it was left to bake just a little longer.
Wicked: For Good was always going to have a difficult time matching pitch with its first entry but, as they say, no good deed goes unpunished, and some sloppy storytelling, impatient writing, and overly softened tragedies have hurt this conclusion’s potential in truly wicked ways.
