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.

Movie Review: Wicked (2024)

Wicked Part 1 (2024) directed by Jon M. Chu

Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is born to a well-to-do family in the Land of Oz (the one ruled by the Wizard of Oz) under strange circumstances. She is born with green skin and has an uncontrolled magical ability that makes things happen when she is under stress. As a child, she is a bit of a family embarrassment and is involved in an accident that causes her sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) to be wheel-chair-bound. When they grow up, Nessarose goes to Shiz University, a school for the well-to-do that includes a magic teacher named Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). Elphaba comes along to drop off Nessarose and naturally draws attention for her skin color. She runs through her usual speech about how she isn't seasick, etc., but the crowd of students is more inclined to laugh and tease than to sympathize. Elphaba has one of her magical outbursts for which Morrible takes the blame. Morrible also takes an intense interest in Elphaba, pulling strings to have her become a student immediately. There's a chance Elphaba might get to see the Wizard, who might grant her deepest wish--not to be green anymore.

Elphaba winds up roommates with Galinda (Ariana Grande), a spoiled blonde girl obsessed with herself and her social status at the school. They hate each other (Galinda was supposed to have a private room and they tussle over who gets what part of the room) though Elphaba is clearly Galinda's intellectual superior in the story and sympathetic superior for the audience. Through awkward circumstances they become friends just as a new cute young man (Jonathan Bailey) shows up at school. He is just as vain as Galinda. His bad boy attitude leads them to adventures outside the school. Eventually, Elphaba gets the invitation to see the Wizard where everything could, and indeed does, change.

The movie is based on the Broadway musical based on the novel. When I heard about the premise of the novel back in the 1990s, I was not interested. Telling The Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West seemed like the another in the line formed by the Gone With the Wind sequel and the Les Miserables sequel. For the first thirty minutes of this film I did not like it. I thought the characters were shallow and unlikeable...until the party scene where Elphaba and Galinda make a connection that pulls them into friendship. They became human beings rather than caricatures. The rest of the cast was less interesting, probably from a combination of the writing (which is mediocre) and the performances (some of the actors are better at the acting part than the singing part). 

Of course, the movie is visually amazing, with no special effects scrimped on. The sets are impressive and have the scale and whimsy of other Oz productions. I'm glad I saw it in the theater on a big screen. 

The story does have some weird bits. There's an animal rights subplot that seems to be there to make other characters less shallow. And the Munchkins are too tall. Maybe I would have forgotten about that problem but one of the students at Shiz University (couldn't they come up with a better name?) is a Munchkin and he is a significant minor character so he keeps showing up. At one point he stands on some books to look taller which is unnecessary since he is certainly shown as tall enough to pass for a regular person. If he had looked shorter, so much of his situation would have been more poignant and believable. The movie has a lot of other nit-picky problems like that.

Mildly recommended--I'll see the second half of the movie when it comes out but I am not in the "can't wait" crowd.