As successful as "Wicked" was a year ago, it could only offer viewers a suspended joy that depends on its sequel sticking the landing. The two movies were filmed together, and the continuity of style, tone, and performance is seamless. If you enjoyed what "Wicked" did with the material, "Wicked for Good" is exactly what you were hoping for. All the exhilaration that has been hanging in the back of your mind comes rushing back the moment the first musical number starts.
"Wicked for Good" picks up years after the first film's finale, where Cynthia's Alphaba sings "Defying Gravity" as she aligns herself against the wizard she discovered was behind the growing persecution of animals. Now branded as the Wicked Witch of the West by Madame Morable and her propaganda machine, she operates out of a secret home in the forest, disrupting the wizard's efforts but losing the war of public opinion.
Ariana Grande's Glenda has stepped into the role of Glenda the Good. Her life is about keeping up appearances, from feigning magical powers with the wizard's tech to announcing an engagement to Prince Fiero, now a captain leading the task force to capture the Wicked Witch. Her love for him is genuine, but she cannot escape the sense that his heart isn't really in it.
The two friends struggle in their lives apart, and the movie with them. Alphaba's opening raid on a team building the Yellow Brick Road via forced animal labor is visually rough, bringing to mind criticisms of the first movie's aesthetic approach. The sociopolitical situation of Oz isn't rendered with much more depth than in the stage musical, nor does the film do much with the passage of time. These first few minutes get things off to a creaky start.
The next chapter in the story of Marissa Bod's Nessa Rose, now governor of Munchkinland, and Ethan Slater's Boach, rescues things a bit. Director John M. Chu films the Tin Man sequence with the same surprising intensity as the flying monkey attack in part one, and it establishes the darker tone of "For Good," but things don't fully get back on track until Alphaba and Glenda meet again in Oz on the eve of Glenda's wedding.
"Wicked" is really the story of the unlikely life-changing friendship between these two women, and Chu's adaptation succeeds because of how well it taps into this emotional current. Once this relationship retakes center stage, the film's pull is irresistible. Erivo and Grande deepen their stellar work as their characters wound each other less out of malice than circumstance and grapple with how this changes their bond. Through them, the tension of this political struggle has heft.
Both shine in musical numbers, echoing her defining rendition of "The Wizard and I," Erivo's "No Good Deed" is the standout, benefiting from Chu's most impactful staging. And "For Good," their duet, is beautifully sung and loaded with feeling. It will have lasting power on its own terms, but there's something special about experiencing it on screen after having lived through "Wicked's" press tour. Their meta-textual connection makes the performance even more touching.
"Wicked for Good" stumbles at various points. The new songs by Steven Schwartz are superfluous, and there's a regrettable decision near the end involving Jeff Goldblum that only avoids disaster by being brief. But the same magic that powered the first film is still at work here. If you're inclined to be swept away by the costumes, sets, group numbers, and infectious energy, there's nothing that will dent your good time.