Wicked was a massive box-office and critical success last year with the only complaint being that we had to wait a year for the conclusion. A year has flashed past and Wicked: For Good, or Wicked Part 2, is here. Is it as good as the first film? No has to be the answer and if you’re a fan of the stage show that probably won’t come as a surprise. The second act never lived up to the first owing to slower pacing and less memorable songs.
With that in mind and probably contradicting myself. Wicked: For Good is still a cracking piece of entertainment and easily ranks as one of the best films of the year.
Wicked finished with Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) flying off on her broomstick promising to expose The Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) as a fraud and the one who is responsible for the ill-treatment of Oz’s animals.
Wicked: For Good takes us on a few years and Elphaba is now living in exile in the Ozian forest and is still fighting for the freedom of Oz’s silenced Animals whilst Glinda (Ariana Grande), under the instructions of Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), now lives at the palace in Emerald City, and is preparing to marry Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey).
As for the other Ozians, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), Elphaba’s sister, is now governor of OZ, a position that has caused her to distance herself from Boq (Ethan Slater), the Munchkin that she fell in love with in Wicked.
Both Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are again terrific in their respective roles, OSCAR nominations must be a certainty and, such is the level of their performance, I for one won’t like to have to decide who the golden statue goes to.
As I’ve already mentioned Wicked: For Good just isn’t as good as Wicked, it’s a close thing but the lack of any real memorable songs, the first film was sprinkled with some crackers Defying Gravity and Popular just being a couple, and slower pacing (it’s half an our shorter than Wicked by feels longer, trying to shoehorn characters from the original Wizard of OZ in feels rushed), knock it down a star.
Wicked: For Good is still streets ahead of anything that’s graced cinemas recently and it might not be up to Wicked but is still something that shouldn’t be missed on the big screen.