4.5 out of 5.0 stars
“Wicked: For Good,” the long-awaited second act of “Wicked,” hit theaters on Nov. 21 with a bang. The movie brought in $150 million in the U.S. for its opening weekend. Many new elements were introduced in this movie with surprising artistic choices involving lyrical changes and plot changes, making this goodbye to the “Wicked” movies quite memorable.
The film is based on the long-running Broadway musical “Wicked,” which tells the story of “The Wizard of Oz” from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the North. Director Jon M. Chu gave the musical a brand new life with the movie installments, making these witches more iconic than ever.
The plot follows Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda Upland (Ariana Grande) after their time at Shiz University. The two continue to navigate their friendship against all odds of love and power. At this point, Elphaba is seen as a fugitive and guards are constantly searching to capture her. The Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) have decided to make Glinda their own “Good Witch.” However, she does not have any magical powers like Elphaba does.
Glinda takes a more dominant role in screentime for this second act. A flashback of her is shown in the beginning of the movie as a child, showing how she has always wanted to have magic. Glinda as a child is also shown near the end of the film when she is deciding as an adult what the right thing to do is for Oz. It was a close parallel to the first movie that had these scenes for Elphaba in a similar sequence.
Stephen Schwartz, the music and lyric writer for the original musical, showcased new songs in this film, like “No Place Like Home,” which is sung by Erivo. While the lyrics are quite repetitive with her singing “there’s no place like home” in every other line, it had an underlying political tone showcasing authoritarianism and prejudice in Oz, which the musical has always had a sense of.
The other original song, “The Girl in the Bubble,” is sung by Grande and showcases Glinda’s character as someone who is perfect and pretty on the outside, but is dealing with her own struggles internally. The cinematography by Alice Brooks in this specific scene was outstanding. When Grande is singing, there are many different camera placements that send viewers through her thought process by the manipulation of mirrors and perspectives. Glinda is seen singing in front of a mirror that looks like it is coming from right at that reflection, but the camera pans out from a completely unexpected mirror across the set. This decision for the song helped intensify the confusion that Glinda deals with while trying to decide what to do.
It was “thrillifying” to see Robin Guiver, assistant professor in the Department of Theatre, Dance and Performance at Ithaca College, credited as the lead movement artist for both “Wicked” films. All of the animals were given such lively expressions and emotions through this significant role, enhancing the viewer’s perspective of the struggles that the animals are facing, making them more human.
Unfortunately, the musical elements struggled with the role of Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). One critique online has been Yeoh’s weak singing in both installments, questioning if she was the right choice for the role. In “Thank Goodness / I Couldn’t Be Happier,” an entire verse that Morrible sings in the musical was removed, leaving people to question if Chu agreed with online opinion towards Yeoh’s singing abilities. With the sections that did make it into the movie, her singing was not the strongest.
A big plot point is when Boq Woodsman (Ethan Slater) turns into the Tinman and Fiyero Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey) turns into the Scarecrow due to Elphaba casting spells on them. The makeup and prosthetics by Mark Coulier and Frances Hannon for the transformed characters was extremely realistic. Everything on the actors was real and they did not use any CGI so they could truly enhance the looks for Fiyero’s burlap skin and Boq’s shiny tin body.
While there were a few creative changes made to the film, the biggest involved a scene with Nessarose Thropp (Marissa Bode), also known as the Wicked Witch of the East. In the original musical, there is a scene where Elphaba gives Nessarose the ability to walk because she is in a wheelchair. However, Chu changed it to be Elphaba making her levitate to help lift her spirit. This minor change that Bode collaborated with writers to make was essential for representation of people with disabilities, so that Nessarose did not need to be “fixed” from her disability.
The last shot of the movie was quite symbolic for the Broadway fanatics. Glinda turns to Elphaba to whisper something in her ear as Elphaba smirks. It was a beautiful nod to the Broadway playbill for the original musical, making the movies end in a full circle.
While it is sad to see this iconic era come to an end, it has left a huge mark on the Broadway and film community. “Wicked: For Good” made changes from the original story to appeal to broader audiences, and that is exactly what it did.
