Movie Review: Wicked for Good (2025)

Wicked for Good (2025) directed by Jon M. Chu

See my review of the first film here!

The story returns to the land of Oz where Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) has been cast out and branded the Wicked Witch of the West. The smear campaign is orchestrated by Ms. Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) who is working with/manipulating the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and Glinda (Ariana Grande-Butera). Elphaba continues her campaign to free magical beasts, especially those enslaved to build yellow brick roads from Oz to other cities and towns like Munchkinland. She wants to reveal the truth about the Wizard's ambitions and his lack of abilities (he uses a lot of mechanical inventions and passes them off as magic). Glinda still can't do magic but is on board with Morrible and the Wizard, accepting a "magic bubble" so she can fly around just like Elphaba does on her broom. The conflict gets more complicated when Glinda is engaged to Captain Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who might be more romantically interested in Elphaba. Elphaba's sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) tries to win the heart of Boq (Ethan Slater) who has a thing for Glinda more than Nessarose. The romantic complications lead to more trouble as Morrible summons a tornado to drop a house on Nessarose.

The movie suffers from a lot of the same problems of the first one--a bunch of characters are unlikeable and/or shallow. This movie is still amazing-looking though the songs are less memorable and fun. The plot moves along so fast it skips a lot of explanations, leaving gaping plot holes that are very hard to ignore. The themes of disregarding the truth in favor of the popular and the lionizing of evil choices is hard to swallow. The film does try to move away from that at the end, but it is not very believable. The happy ending for Elphaba is especially dumb and feels tacked on because that's the way stories are supposed to end. The film has too many unsatisfactory elements. The actors do a good job with what they have, but the script is a failure.

Not recommended--maybe they should have left The Wizard of Oz alone instead of trying to subvert it.