Image Credit: Universal Pictures, Wicked: For Good (2025)

After a year of bubbling anticipation and yet another bizarre press tour, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are back on the big screen in Wicked: For Good (2025), the second installment of Jon M. Chu’s two-part film adaptation of the smash-hit Broadway musical. Admittedly, I didn’t go to the cinema with particularly high expectations for this. The second act of Wicked’s original Broadway production has been notoriously panned by critics for its jumbled pacing and poor songs, so after the brilliance of Part One, I expected to feel underwhelmed. However, whilst this second installment was undeniably weaker in several aspects, it was by no means a bad movie or an unworthy sequel. 

The public consensus on the film seems mixed so far, particularly surrounding its rather lengthy runtime. Some reviewers have criticised the elongation of a story that would only be around an hour on stage whereas others claim the narrative felt too rushed. I personally didn’t pick up on glaring pacing issues and felt that unlike some other musicals, the plot moved seamlessly from song to song without feeling overly forced. The addition of two new songs – ‘There’s No Place Like Home’ and ‘Girl In The Bubble’ (sung by Erivo and Grande respectively) – fleshed out the story well and ensured that emotional beats had time to settle before jumping to the next plot point. My major grievance with the film isn’t actually the fault of Jon M. Chu at all, but rather the movie’s Broadway source material. As a fan of The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Frank L. Baum’s original novel, there were some major inconsistencies with Ozian canon that bugged me (but this is a complaint that has been levelled against the musical for years, so I’m not going to harp on this any longer). Plot holes aside, I found the storyline engaging throughout, and the tweaks necessary to adapt Wicked from stage to screen were incorporated cleverly. Chu did a solid job of transforming what once was a floundering and messy second act into a polished and tightly written film. 

In terms of the soundtrack, I did feel that For Good had fewer standout numbers on offer than its predecessor. Given the darker atmosphere of the second act, it makes sense that none of the songs were particularly fun, but it would have been nice if they were at least a little more memorable. None of them really hold a candle to Part One’s soaring heights of ‘Defying Gravity’, ‘Popular’ and ‘What Is This Feeling?’, though the impeccable harmonies of the two leads in the emotionally-charged closer ‘For Good’ are not to be understated. Songs like ‘As Long As You’re Mine’ and ‘No Good Deed’ were exceptionally delivered, as one would expect from top-notch performers like Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey, but I’m not particularly itching to listen to them on repeat. I did really enjoy the song ‘Wonderful’, a jaunty ditty sung by Jeff Goldblum as the bumbling yet sinister Wizard and accompanied by Erivo and Grande. It was a welcome bit of silliness before the film segued towards more heavy and depressing balladry in its latter half.

A lot of critics and fans have pointed out the odd colour grading in both Wicked films, which I think is a valid appraisal. On the one hand, the dance sequence during ‘Wonderful’ looked gorgeous, as did most scenes in and around the Wizard’s palace. But beyond the confines of the Emerald City, the colour scheme arguably looked rather grey and bland. Munchkinland, which is one of the most vibrant locations in the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie, felt completely flat and lifeless in Chu’s adaptation; the lack of bright colour emphasised the set’s artificiality, which took me out of the illusion a little. Obviously we’re never going to be able to recapture the technicolour magic of Hollywood’s Golden Age again, but I think more work could have been done to really emphasise the vivid brilliance of Frank L. Baum’s fantasy realm. 

The emotional core of the film was, of course, the touching bond that Elphaba and Glinda share. Erivo and Grande’s on-screen chemistry was a highlight for me, and I found myself sobbing at the film’s conclusion when they are forced to part ways. Ethan Slater as Boq/The Tin Man was also a surprise triumph, with his visceral ferocity in ‘March of The Witch Hunters’ genuinely giving me goosebumps. Whilst I can appreciate Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard may not have been the strongest casting choices for these particular roles, I honestly didn’t find their portrayals to be as terrible as the internet might want to claim them to be. 

Overall, Wicked: For Good was a compelling and sentimental conclusion to this magical duology. Although I can understand several of the criticisms that have sprung up in online discourse recently, none of these majorly detracted from my enjoyment of the film. As someone who had never seen or heard anything Wicked related until this time last year, I can say with confidence that I have been changed ‘for good’ and am now a major fan. I can’t wait until both films are available on streaming so I can binge them all at once!