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WICKED: For Good REVIEW (spoiler-free) | 2025 musical film starring Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande
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Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic and YouTuber)
So after finally seeing the second film Wicked for good and thereby ending more than a decade of anticipation for the full film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Wicked, one question haunts and hurts too much, too much to mention, but I will anyway, Are they going to try and make a third one? And listen, the first two films have done very well. Let us be glad. Let us be grateful for what we have enjoyed. Let us also stop it there. But also the possibility of a future Wicked film or a further expanded Ozzy and Universe is a different conversation for another day. For now, I am going to bring you my Spoiler free thoughts of Wicked for good. Oh my God. Hey. Welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. For those of you who have joined me before, my name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre since early childhood, since I saw Wicked the Musical in London's West End, my very first West End show, at the age of 11 in 2006 with Idina Menzel defying that gravity. In fact, I have been obsessed with all things theater since a few years prior to that. But that was a formative experience for me, which is a big part of why it's been so exciting, along with so many other theater fans to see Wicked adapted for the screen. I feel like this has been a really unifying event for the theatre community because, you know, there are like fans of Heathers, there are fans of Hamilton, but Wicked on screen has kind of brought a great many of us together both, you know, the, the goers of years past as well as the new generation of theater kids. I feel like everyone has been able to be at least a little bit excited about finally getting to see these witches on screen now. As well as a theater fan, I'm also a professional theater critic. For those of you who don't know me, here are the credentials real quick. I see theater in the West End or on Broadway or elsewhere around the world around five times a week. I see hundreds of shows every single year and I review them here on social media. I have seen Wicked the Musical upwards of a dozen times in the West End, on Broadway, on its North American tour in Canada, and a non replica production in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Meaning I have seen it in four countries, three continents numbers which it is only a matter of time before I improve. And now this week, after attending an early screening of the film courtesy of Amazon prime and really courtesy of my friend who got us tickets, I have now seen the entirety of Wicked on screen as well. And I'm going to tell you about it, but not all about it because this specifically is going to be an entirely spoiler free review of the film. We are not going to talk about specific changes that have been made. That will be a standalone video of its own coming later. There will also be within the next week or so a spoiler inclusive review of me where we can dig into all the delicious little details and the choices that were made. What we are going to talk about today is sort of an overview of my big picture thoughts about the film. Is it a good film? How does it stand alongside other movie musicals? Does it live up to the hype created by the very successful first film. We're going to talk about the performances. Is there anyone I think might be getting any kind of Oscar buzz? We're going to talk broadly about the two entirely new songs that have been written for the score. And in general, I aspire to be in conversation with those of you who by the time you're watching this, have already seen the film, but also to help create spoiler free excitement and enthusiasm and a sense of where to measure your expectations. For those of you who haven't yet, in short, I'll be letting you know if I thought Wicked for Good was good enough. And as always, these being just my own subjective opinions, I would love to know what you thought as well. Let us all know in the comments section if you have seen the film already what you thought of Wicked for Good. Now, who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because nearly 100,000 of you subscribe right here on YouTube, as well as listening on podcast platforms and checking out my content across other social media apps, I have indeed been changed for good. And if you don't yet subscribe here on YouTube, I would be very grateful. Plus, it means that you get to stay up to date with all of my super regular theater themed content. You're not seeing my usual backdrop behind me right now because I am away for two weeks in New York seeing as many newly opening Broadway and Off Broadway shows as possible. There are dozens of reviews as well as vlog content heading your way very, very soon. But in the meantime, while you wait just a clock tick for those, there is literally nothing more important for us to be talking about right now than Wicked for Good. Let us waste no more time. Let's talk about this movie without spoilers. Now, I'm not going to deliver an enormous amount of context and backstory, but for the 0.1% of people watching Wicked for Good is the second of a two part film adaptation of a single musical based on the novel by Gregory Maguire. Inspired by the characters of L. Frank Baum's the Wonderful wizard of Oz, the musical has been running on Broadway since 2003, in the West End since 2006. It is a global cultural phenomenon, one which has only grown since the success of the first film, that being an adaptation of the musical's first act and Wicked for Good being an adaptation of its second. And the first film followed the formative years of two familiar Ozian characters, the Wicked Witch of the west and Glinda the Good Witch, revealing as does the show and Gregory Maguire's novel, hitherto unknown details about their backstory and their actual friendship. The second film, meanwhile, the one which we will be discussing today, which adapts the musical second act, sees them racing towards the events of the wonderful wizard of Oz, events which begin to unfold during this film. And in many ways, and for that reason as well as others, I do think that Wicked for Good, this second movie had considerably larger silver slippers to fill than the first one. And the reasons for that are as follows. Sequels always come with a massive amount of anticipation, but in this instance, even more than usual, because Wicked has been perhaps the most anticipated film adaptation of a musical in recent memory, having originally been teased as early as 2009. But not only that, this is a very unconventional film adaptation in that it is adapted across two parts, which a lot of skeptics were early to suggest was a mistake, and set up the second film specifically for failure. Because it is largely agreed within the theater community that the second act of Wicked is not as strong as the first, and that's pretty much because they have to race through an extraordinarily vast amount of storytelling. The first act is about building this relationship and establishing the direction that Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the west and Glinda are going to head off in, as well as setting up everything that will carry on to create impact into the second act. But once we get into the second act, an awful lot of stuff has to happen, as well as the entirety of the plot of the Wonderful wizard of Oz. And so it is very crowded. There's also the reality that in musical theater, the songs of a show's second act, not always, but sometimes are sort of in response to those from the first act. And the same thing happens in Wicked. There are a handful of moments that nod to or reprise musical moments from the first act, so the score doesn't quite stand as strongly on its own two feet when separated. Finally, you have the wizard of Oz of it all and all of this expectation, because if non musical theatre audiences didn't know Wicked, it's very possible that they will know the wizard of Oz and they have all of these expectations about how exactly we are going to encounter that in this film. All of which is a very long winded way of saying that Wicked for good had an awful lot to measure up to and an awful lot of challenges to begin with. I still think, here is my verdict, that it is an incredibly strong movie musical. It is certainly in perhaps the top two tiers, the upper echelons of movie musicals that we have ever seen because there are so, so many that just plainly don't work or never really are able to discern a coherent musical identity. There are so many adaptations that just don't know how to put musical numbers and singing on screen in a way that is convincing. And when I was speaking about the first Wicked movie, I distinctly remember saying that it was right up there at the pantheon of the greatest movie musicals ever made, with the likes of west side Story and Chicago and Hairspray and a great many others that I can't bring to mind right now. Tick, tick, boom in the Heights even. And I would say that Wicked for good sits just below that tier of movie musical. It is still very strong. I think it lives up very much to the legacy of the first film. I love that they were filmed in tandem because they are so clearly linked. There is no sense of separation between the two. All of it was filmed at the same time. So in terms of continuity, everything just makes sense. It's going to make for really satisfying marathon watching when people are finally able to do one, then the other, which some screenings are actually doing this week. Very fun. I can't wait to do that on a plane. Personally or alternate idea. You watch one flying to your destination and you watch another one on the return flight. I'm just putting it out there. You may defy gravity as you wish, but I do. I definitely feel that Wicked is worthy of the hype of the first film, if perhaps not quite as strong. I don't think it stands as confidently as a standalone story as the first one did. It feels very much like a sequel. And, you know, as successful as many of the best sequels are, it doesn't eclipse the first film and surpass it like the Shrek twos of this world. But it's very much untrodden ground to explore the concept of movie musical, sequel at all. And I think there's an awful lot about it that should be celebrated. Here's a little more expansion then on why I think Wicked for Good is a very good film that is not quite as good as the first one. And I don't wish to say that it's bad. I was quite surprised to be getting messages of people asking me after they saw that I'd seen the film, is it as bad as everyone's saying? And not at all. Absolutely not. I think, you know, huge expectations, great first film. This one has inherent differences and other challenges. Not just the way the second act is written, but also the setting of each film does an Awful lot to dictate the tone, because we said a year ago, after I watched the first one and many other comments agreed with this as well. It felt like a high school or college Enemies to Friends comedy film, but because that's essentially what it was, but with very soaring, epic, aspirational music. But so much of that film was about the softening relationship of Elphaba and Glinda in this academic setting. And so it felt like that kind of a movie. And that's not where we are in the second film. In the second film, all of that has already happened. We pick right back up and we are following the two of them and the choices that they have made for themselves and what that means about the lives that they are going on to lead in this authoritarian political regime. And because we focus an awful lot on the politics of Oz and because Elphaba is, as was established at the end of Defying Gravity in the first film, the main adversary to all of this, who is flying around on a broomstick and capable of magical powers. It feels like a political movie, but even more so like a political superhero movie. And it makes sense that it would, because we're spending so much time doing Elphaba versus the Wizard. We have some extended sort of action sequences and an awful lot of flight. We have the combinations of origin stories and backstories that were teased and established in the first film. But that setting and that tone is a more grown up one. It's a less adolescent and whimsical one than in the previous movie. And so it makes sense that this would feel really different. Here's another interesting thought about it. And this has to do specifically with the score. Now, I will eventually talk about those two new songs which have been added, but because the second act of Wicked has so many truncated and interrupted and fragmented musical moments in its songs, this somehow, for the first half of the film at least, and then sort of overall felt like less of a movie musical with a capital M than the first one did. And it makes sense because in Wicked one, you have the whole no one mourns the Wicked opening epic extended still. There are dialogue interruptions, but you hear an awful lot of music at the beginning. And then you have these entire songs the likes of what Is this Feeling and the wizard and I and Pot popular and dancing through life in great proximity to each other. The whole thing builds to its climax, which is this extended Defying Gravity musical moment. And there are plenty of songs. There are as many songs in the second film, but so many of them are interrupted by dialogue and the music feels a lot more sparse, certainly in the beginning moments of the film and for a good long while until we arrive to the likes of no Good Deed and the new songs that have been added in. Continuing with overview thoughts, though, I feel it's also important to point out that especially as a theatre fan and as a Wicked fan for many years, it still felt incredibly satisfying and very rewarding. It felt familiar of the Wicked that I know and love. There are a handful of very sweet and surprising Easter eggs both to Wicked and to the wizard of Oz film adaptation. If you're a fan of either or both, there is lots for you to enjoy. There were actually a few moments of organic applause in our theatre screening, admittedly from a particularly excited crowd, but as anticipated, a very emotional watch. It did make me cry. The performances remain very strong, exactly as strong as I think they were in the first film. There's an interesting shift in character thrust and this ties in a lot with a conversation about how we take the second act of Wicked and adapt it for the screen. Because as I alluded to before, it needs a little bit more work and care than the first act. It's also shorter and what was so great about the first film was it took this perhaps rushed narrative and it didn't add in entirely new songs or entirely new scenes, it just expanded there. It felt sort of surreal to watch this thing that was usually half the length and feel as though, you know, nothing. Ostensibly that new happened, but everything just had a little bit more room to breathe. And Jon M. Chu and the writers added in so much more depth and nuance into each of these moments and in terms of the care of steadily building this relationship and building these characters. And the same thing happens in the second act with a couple more entirely new moments, largely care of the new songs that have been added, one for Elphaba, one for Glinda. But also if the first film felt like more of an Elphaba movie in which Glinda could just about be justified as a supporting character, this one feels entirely the other way around. It is going to be mind boggling if they and justify Ariana Grande for the purposes of the Golden Globes, the Academy Awards, etc. As a supporting actress, as a supporting character in this film, because she plainly isn't. I would argue quite confidently that Glinda is more so in terms of screen time and in terms of the narrative, the leading character of this film with Elphaba sort of relegated to the supporting role. And the reason I tell you, as part of this conversation about the adaptation of the second act is because in the expanse of the whole thing, in the widening of these scenes and the room to breathe of it all, Glinda benefits from that. Ariana does a huge amount more than it seems Elphaba does. And we get to encounter Elphaba earlier in the narrative than we do in the stage version. It's normally a little ways into the second act before Elphaba eventually appears, but in terms of the fleshing out of character and the reflection on who they've become and who they were, a lot more of that goes to Glinda. There are at least a couple of scenes, and I'm not going to talk about this in too much detail or tell you which ones they were. No spoilers here, don't worry, but there are at least a couple scenes that used to be entire self contained scenes that are now divided in two, with other things happening in the intervening moments, which on both of these occasions is very beneficial in terms of character development and narrative. It allows the whole thing to escape that very rushed quality that Wicked Act 2 has. I think a lot of the problems of Act 2 have been resolved and have been deliberately resolved. Other aspects of it and other sort of plot curiosities, they sort of just bulldoze past and either ignore or disregard or simply looked out of the window, saw that they were too complicated to unpick, and chose not to for the most part. What I'm talking about here is the plot's relationship to the plot of the Wonderful wizard of Oz, which starts a little ways into the second act and then concludes around the same, the same time that Wicked does. And even though we have seen from trailers that to some extent we were going to encounter Dorothy and friends, perhaps a little more so than in the stage version, where she is just an offstage presence or a silhouette, invoked more specifically in early workshop versions of the show, but long since cut from it. What we end up getting, and I guess if you want this to remain a mystery to you, you can choose to skip ahead from this particular moment if you would like, but is the invocation of Dorothy and friends, which very closely resembles the one that we get on stage. And it seems as though the decision that has been made here is that we're going to continue to focus on the Wicked side of the story, flesh that out and expand on that a little bit more. We are not going to use the added runtime in order to show you a little bit more of what Dorothy and friends are getting up to even if it seems like that might be intriguing and or pertinent and or a way to answer a lot of long held questions. But that is all I'm going to.
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Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic and YouTuber)
Say about that for now, let's next talk about the themes of the film and the ideas that we are talking about here. Because a lot of people who didn't know Wicked realized as the first film was being released that this had a little something to say about politics and you know, had a lot of comparison, perhaps accidentally, to the current political situation and the rise of fascism globally. And Wicked for Good is undeniably a political film. It's not the most nuanced in its politics. What we're really talking about and depicting here is the concept of a regime clinging to power by way of this cult of personality. And we see an awful lot of how they use propaganda as a tool to do that and fear mongering and scapegoating and we get to sort of Glimpse behind the curtain, pun absolutely intended, and discover how individuals within that system maintain the power and the authority that they have over Oz. But more so than anything else, we're really showing that that is happening and declaring that that is happening, rather than really investigating it or debating it. There is some conversation, as there has always been, between Elphaba and the wizard, between Elphaba and Glinda, as they, you know, weigh these different perspectives on how best things can be achieved and whether it's better to collaborate within a broken system or oppose it entirely on principle. Beyond and through all of that, we return to the bigger theme that we were exploring in the first film, which is the friendship between these two individuals from very different backgrounds, who society would generally have kept apart, who came to really understand and respect and value and even love each other. That part of it all, and how could it not be, is a really big focus of Wicked for Good. And those of you and I know that you are out there who long to see a more literally realized, overtly romantic relationship between Elphaba and Glinda, the Gelfie Stans who are out there patiently, you have waited in the dark. I will say that while obviously and unsurprisingly they are not in entirely pivoting to your way of thinking, which I don't disrespect whatsoever, they are certainly putting a little something down that you can choose to pick up should you wish to. I think the Gelfiest hands are going to be not altogether nourished, but a little more fed than you might be expected to be by this film. As with the first film, we are still spending an awful lot of time talking about the plight of the animals in Oz. More focus on that in the film than in the stage show. It's also just easier for us to meet a wealth of other animals than it would be on stage. The one thing that we kind of lost sight of, I think, is Elphaba and her identity and how she feels about being the green girl and this very othered quality that was so beautifully explored in the first film, with beautiful parallels drawn between that and, you know, real world racism. But in the face of everything that she is experiencing throughout Wicked for Good, that kind of fades into the background a little bit back briefly to the politics of it all. Both of the new songs in their lyrics kind of refer to thoughts that Elphaba and Glinda are separately having about the unfolding political situation and the way in which each of them and other people in the communities around them ought to be navigating this For Glinda, that's a reflection on the role that she has played up to this point and the person she has allowed herself to become. For Elphaba, that is a reminder of what is ultimately the most important thing. I will tell you more about those two songs, not just yet. I'm also going to talk about the visual storytelling. But I want to point out one thing here while we're talking about the political allegory that is Wicked, because there are a handful of moments that really strikingly seem to refer to actual historical things that have happened and occasion when individuals and communities have been victimized and have been marginalized and have been legislated against by fascist or corrupt governments. There are a couple of moments in this film where what we're looking at is quite clearly this magical, enchanted fantasy realm. But you can draw very specific parallels between imagery that they are invoking and actual historical atrocities and major situations. And in a film that is having this political conversation and in which all of these this is happening, it's perhaps unsurprising to hear that the tone of the whole thing from Wicked on stage has pivoted just slightly away from the comedic. There are still a lot of funny moments. We've retained a lot of the sort of sarcastic Ad Libby comedy feel that we got from a lot of Ariana's flippant lines in the first one, a lot of Bowen Yang's interjections. And as Fanny, it feels very much like we have the same sense of humor as the first Wicked film, but we are living in darker times. So there are a lot of comedy lines from the stage show, some of them in very bleak and emotional moments that are entirely gone. And the tone and the feel of the whole thing, while not feeling particularly dark or intense, feels just that little bit more serious. If anyone is curious about the real minutiae of all of this and the specific lines that have been cut or redistributed to other people or sort of taken out of a spoken moment and put into a new song lyric. I will talk about absolutely all of this when I eventually make a video about the many, many extensive changes made to Wicked from the stage to Wicked For Good. I did the same thing last year with the first one. There are more changes when it comes to taking Act 2 and turning it into For Good. We're not reshaping the entire narrative. Like I said, we are expanding on moments. There are a lot of changes as far as the score goes. Let's talk about that next. So this is where, after foreshadowing it on multiple occasions, I'm going to tell you about the two new songs, and I don't think it's a spoiler to tell you where they are coming. This has already been kind of made publicly available. It's possible you may just want to skip this entire section before we get onto them. I will say that there was very little, very, very little of the first film by way of new music or more new lyrics. There are so, so many in this film, and we knew the new songs were happening. But even in the introductory moments of the film, we were hearing new music or perhaps reprise moments that we weren't necessarily expecting. There are multiple songs in this film that have musically and lyrically rewritten first verses and introductory moments, which I was altogether stunned by. There was one song in particular that we just went such a long time before we got to a part of the song that we recognized for the stage version. I was like, I didn't know this was happening. What's going on right now for the purists among you, there are also plenty of songs, and I would say the more major and the more popular songs, which are entirely as they have always been. Orchestration sounded absolutely fantastic. What I really appreciated and came to notice were the incidental instrumental music moments happening between songs. And I loved the themes that they were choosing to draw out from the score to underscore certain emotional moments, some of them calling back to melodies from the first film. We heard quite a few melodies from the first film, probably between reprised songs and incidental music. It's very possible we actually heard all of them again. So if you like the songs in the first film and you were sad they weren't necessarily going to be in Wicked for good, turns out they are. But the headline news here, of course, is the two new songs. And without putting a downer on the whole thing, I would say that golden from K Pop Demon Hunters remains uncontested as far as the Academy Award for Best Original Song goes, which for anyone who is paying attention to the history of this award, ought not to be a surprise. There is, I think, one movie musical in history that has gone from stage to screen and added a song and subsequently won the Academy Award. There are so many that try and do this. Les Miserables added a song into the woods. I can't remember if it got cut in the end, but so many have added songs for the screen adaptations. Hairspray did this. And only Evita, I think, has ever actually managed to win an Oscar by doing that, I think it's pretty safe to say at this point that Stephen Schwartz and Wicked for Good will not be joining them. And it's not that the songs are bad. I would say that they don't really emerge within the Wicked score. The defining musical moments of the second act are the ones that you're already expecting to be the defining musical moments of the second act. And neither of these are written to be particularly impactful or show stopping numbers. They are both quite sedate and introspective and low key. They are meant to be subtly moving, more so than anything else. For one of them, that really works because of where it comes at a slow moment in the narrative. For the other, I think it would be more impactful if we got something more triumphant, especially because it's occurring at something of a climax. I also think, and I'm sure I will say this again in my upcoming spoiler inclusive review, but while they sound like Stephen Schwartz, they sound more like his work from other projects. I think it's quite clear that they have each been written around the voices of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. As you would expect, there are moments in the song that Elphaba sings that sound a Little Prince of Egypt Y But more so than anything else, and this isn't a Schwartz musical. It felt very Aida, and whether that was, you know, for shaping it around Cynthia and that's the kind of a sound that you end up getting, I don't know. That's quite curious. It felt more like either of those than it necessarily felt like Wicked. Not altogether unlike Wicked. It doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. Maybe it sticks out like a slightly wonky index finger. I also have yet to bring you any of my thoughts about the new Broadway musical featuring a score by Stephen Schwartz and starring Kristin Chenoweth over at the St James Theatre, the Queen of Versailles. That review will be dropping real soon. You're going to want to subscribe. Before I drop that one, let me tell you, turn on notifications. You don't want to miss it. But the song that Ariana sings later as Glinda, the Girl in the Bubble, felt pretty reminiscent of the Queen of Versailles. And it makes sense when a composer is writing songs for different projects around the same time. You can kind of hear the identity kind of seeping from one into the other because they're spending so much time in that musical world and that's where they are living. You definitely heard it while Sondheim was writing new songs for the London production of Follies while he was working on Broadway into the World Woods. My hot take here is that it's objectively a little bit funny that since Wicked in the early 2000s, so many contemporary musical theater scores have started to sound like Wicked. And so for us to get two new songs that sound less like Wicked than dozens of scores that have been written since is a little bit funny. And no one is writing successful scores that sound more Wicked inspired than Robert and Kristen Anderson Lopez. If you think about not just Frozen, but also the Book of Mormon, lots of Wicked esque melody in those. And so not that I'm encouraging anyone to go about writing a third Wicked film, but if we do, I think controversially they might be better placed to score it than Stephen Schwartz. And I know that sounds absolutely blasphemous. But listen, go and watch Wicked for good. Listen to those two new songs and then tell me you disagree with me. Overall, though, I would say that musically I was pretty damn happy. I think almost everything was very well sung. Which brings us quite neatly to a.
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Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic and YouTuber)
Conversation about the performances Now Like I already said, Ariana Grande as Glinda feels like she has the leading performance of this film. Her role feels larger and more focused on than Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba. The two of them continue to give great performances. I think I found a little bit more reward in those moments of contemplation and doubt and struggle that we were seeing faltering on Ariana's lips as Glinda than the relentless frustration experienced by Cynthia as Elphaba just because I didn't feel as though it had dynamics in the same way. And Glinda we see going through a whole journey in the second act. And this is per the material as well. Elphaba remains sort of in the same place and she has moments of more. I'm trying not to step on a spoiler here. Like a landmine, she has specific emotional moments where she experiences specific emotions, shall we say, in this film. And so there are places where it could peak and it could plateau and she could soften and we see that. I just wanted to see it in a little more depth and detail. And my thing about Wicked has always been this. It is not a retcon of the wizard of Oz. It is not saying what you know has always been completely and entirely untrue. It's not saying she was never wicked. It's saying this is how she got so wicked and this is what happened to her to bring her to that place. All of the tormenting of Dorothy in the Wonderful wizard of Oz isn't necessarily not taking place in Wicked. There is just a moment in the show where she's like, you know what? What? Fine. And in that moment specifically, I really wanted to see this rage and this utter breakdown and this very distraught, helpless, giving up quality. And it felt more so, like we were just getting a similar kind of frustration that we had been seeing throughout the film thus far. And it was more Defying Gravity 2.0, where I think it could have gone further and been more. Now there's so much about performances. I can't say here because I don't want to talk about spoilers. There are a lot of supporting characters from the first film who get to continue and take their characters in exciting new directions. Everyone has changed. Everyone has evolved since their time at school together. Jonathan Bailey remains swoon worthy is the professional adjective that I'm going to use there. I was more of an apologist when it came to Jeff Goldblum as the wizard and Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible circa the first movie. Both performance wise and vocally. I am finding myself succumbing more and more to what I think is the prevailing popular opinion about each of them, that Goldblum is just a little bit too Goldblum as the wizard that continues into the second movie. And Michelle Yeoh. I didn't have a problem because the vocal moment in the first film was so brief. There are more vocal moments from her that I found to be more disappointing in the second film. A lot of strange decision making happened around that. I'm also not going to tell you absolutely everybody else that we encounter. There were a couple of really Fun cameo moments in the first film. And there aren't. You don't have to keep on your guard for anything like that happening in this one. Unless I missed them entirely. It is possible to spot a great many terrific mostly British musical theatre performers in crowd scenes with a couple of solo lines. But they're not meant to be be people particularly linked to Wicked. It's just individuals who worked on the film. Marissa's adapted material as Nessarose is a conversation that I really want to have in the spoiler inclusive review and the one about the changes, both of which will follow this. But I will say for anyone who has been paying attention to what has been said about shifts within Nessa's storyline, and some of you may not have any idea about this, which is absolutely fine. I. I understand why the changes were made. I respect the changes that were made. I don't know that I thought the way that they were depicted, I think there was a way that it could have made sense. What they did didn't work for me on any kind of an emotional or storytelling level really. What I did love and thought was pretty great, better even perhaps than the first film was a lot of the other visual storytelling and the design elements. Let us conclude by talking about those. So the world of Oz remains a really beautiful one. And from little behind the scenes snippets and from what you can infer through the screen. I love how much of this was practically built. I think that really paid off in both films. But the cinematography in this had some really great moments. You will discover when you see it. This is a the World's lightest spoiler spoiler that Jon M. Chew or someone involved has become deeply enamored with filming through a mirror and then revealing that it's a mirror. Lots of mirror shots in this one. I would say the strongest visual sequence of the entire film is one that cuts back and forth between Elphaba and Glinda in parallel. Doing something that looks very similar but which sees them positioned in very different worlds, walking down the paths that they have sort of either deliberately or accidentally curated for themselves. There's a lot of really great stuff in the way that Glinda is framed, especially during the song the Girl in the Bubble. The greater insights that we are afforded into how Elphaba is living and operating and surviving during this part of the story I think are really great as well. The opening is sort of reworked. I mentioned that we encounter Elphaba earlier. That's really great. Really satisfying. Great way to open the film. We travel in this one to some other areas of the Land of Oz that we hadn't seen previously. I like the way that they have been designed. There are some big impactful visual sequences and things that happen in this one that lead us right into the events of the wizard of Oz. I really like how that looks. Looks. There's a lot of really great, like I said, political imagery. And if the lyrics of the newly written songs don't necessarily make it 100% apparent that we are drawing a comparison to the current political moment or political moments like the current one, familiar of the current one, then I would say the visual storytelling absolutely does. It is clear that we are talking about fascism. It is clear that we are talking about history that has the capacity to repeat itself. I think the character design that is wigs, hair, makeup and the costuming remains, remains just as brilliant as it was in the first film. I like the new directions that they have taken Elphaba and Glinda in, stepping away from the aesthetic of either the wizard of Oz movie or the stage show, but finding ways to honor both of them, particularly in Glinda's new gown, the one that she wears for the majority of the film that pretty directly invokes both iconic dresses simultaneously. I do have an issue with its shoulder straps, but I'm sitting here and thinking maybe that qualifies as a spoiler, so you're going to have to wait to hear why they Drove me insane. Lots more that can be said about character design, but the bulk of that conversation is going to take us firmly into spoiler inclusive territory. So it's just one more thing that I can't fully articulate just yet. But I would say there's lots of stuff I thought really worked and a handful of little details that pulled me out of it just a little bit or left me perhaps slightly quizzical, but enduringly. It's the Easter eggs and it's the little unexpected visual nods to the wizard of Oz, to Wicked on stage that left me thoroughly charmed and emotional even. And that, ultimately is how I felt about Wicked for Good. I have so many specific details of things that I want to talk to you about, and I will when I sit down once I get back home to discuss it with all of the spoilers. We're going to really dig into all of the details. In the meantime, if you haven't already, you will have to go away and do your homework by watching Wicked for Good at the movie theater, at the cinema, wherever you live. Go and check this film out. You will not regret it. Wicked fans, musical theater fans, this is going to make your little green hearts happy. Like I said, it stands proudly alongside the first film. It is a worthy sequel to that first film. It's not going to exceed its critical celebration necessarily. I don't think it's going to be more beloved by the fans. There might be a little rogue contingent of people who think it's stronger than the first one simply because they enjoy, you know, it being perhaps in closer proximity to the wizard of Oz. Of it all, for the most part, it remains a very good film and I think we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief that Wicked has now been fully adapted to screen and that it has been good. I was pretty confident after seeing the first film that they were going to really stick the landing on the whole thing, but now that we are finally over the finish line and I have seen the finished product, I am very satisfied with the whole thing. And I'm hoping that this means great things for the immediate future of movie musicals. Not necessarily that they are going to be shaped by Wicked and that studios should necessarily try and specifically emulate this exact success or expand on the world of Wicked, or try and do a third film or anything like that, but more just the notion that maybe more movie musical projects will get greener lit because of the critical and commercial success of Wicked. Of course, as far as its enduring legacy goes, I am so curious to see what that looks like. And a big part of that is finding out what you all think in the comments section down below. So for those of you who have already seen Wicked for good, let me know what you thought of it. Let all of us know what you thought of it in the comments. And as I mentioned just a few hundred times in this review, there will be a second review coming from me very, very soon that talks about all of the spoilers. We're going to talk about specific lyric changes. We're going to talk about so many I am desperate for you to find out about so we can discuss them subsequently. There will also be more Wicked for Good content. I definitely want to sit down and talk about all of the changes and the impact that they have. Possibly. We will speculate about the possibility of a future Wicked movie. I dare say there is plenty more Wicked for Good content coming here on YouTube as well as on podcast platforms in the coming weeks, just like there was last year. But not only that, there are so many huge, high profile theatrical openings over the coming weeks and which I have recently seen. If you want to find out what I thought of the Paddington musical. I'll be seeing that really soon. The new Stephen Schwartz scored musical the Queen of Versailles, the Chess Revival Masquerade Off Broadway. I have seen so much great theatre recently. I am very excited to tell you about it. So you're going to need to make sure that you're subscribed right here on YouTube with the notifications turned on so that you get an update every single time I share a new video. Or if you would prefer, go and follow me on podcast platforms. I have been Mickey Joe, thank you so much for listening to my thoughts and as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day.
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Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic and YouTuber)
That'S gone to flames.
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This is going to be catastrophic. We're fighting for our marriages and the girls are just putting us through hell.
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Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic and YouTuber)
I can't. Hopefully this doesn't end in a bloodbath.
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