As a theater kid, Wicked has been a musical that’s followed me throughout my life. My dad always loved Wicked, so when it came to the Overture Center, we had to go. That’s when I first got to see it when I was little. I don’t remember much except ‘Defying Gravity’ and parts of ‘I’m Not That Girl.’ From then on, I loved Wicked. When I heard that they were making a movie adaptation, I was super excited. I enjoyed the first movie, and I also got to see the musical again at the Overture in 2025. I’ve seen Wicked: For Good twice in the same week, and cried both times. I’m going to start by rating the music, then move on to the story, characters, and general look of the movie. I will not be talking about any controversy around Wicked, only the movie itself. I’m also rating the movie, not the musical. There will be spoilers ahead!
In the musical, some of the songs serve a purpose, but in the movie, they fail to feel important. The movie begins with the song “Everyday More Wicked.” This song is normally grouped with “Thank Goodness” instead of them being two separate songs. However, it was still a very good song to open with because, in my opinion, it closely mirrors “No One Mourns the Wicked,” which opened the last movie/first act. Overall, pretty good – 7/10.
Next up is “Thank Goodness/I Couldn’t Be Happier,” which I enjoy. The storytelling of the song adds to the plot, but Michelle Yeoh’s voice wasn’t my favorite. No shade to her, but the song is just not in her vocal or character range. The one other thing is that I think they could’ve leaned more into Glinda’s realization about her choice. 8/10 – good but not my favorite.
“No Place Like Home” is just okay in my opinion. Not my favorite, even though Cynthia Erivo’s vocals are amazing. I understand why they added it for storytelling purposes, including the animals in danger plot, but the song felt crammed into the story. The part with the lion was also very strange, but again, it made sense to the story. 5/10.
“The Wicked Witch of the East” was honestly a song I didn’t even realize was happening. The scene as a whole was great, but the song didn’t add much – 4/10.
“Wonderful” is one of my favorites now. I like how they chose to add Glinda into the vocals. It added to the story and made Elphaba’s temptation to join the wizard even more alluring. Ever since they released the song recording, I couldn’t wait to see the choreography, and it did not disappoint – 10/10.
“I’m Not That Girl (reprise)” is a good song, but it’s a reprise. I have nothing against reprises, but this one didn’t stand out to me as much as other songs. It’s still meaningful to the storytelling, but not one of my favorites – 7/10.
“As Long as You’re Mine” is a good song, and I like how they didn’t drown them in fog in the movie. But Elphaba- TAKE THE CARDIGAN OFF. I cannot stress how much I hate that cardigan. The song is catchy, but not one of my favorites – 8/10.
“No Good Deed” is another one of my favorites from Wicked, and this song gave me chills. I love Cythina Evrio’s voice in this song, and the staging looked very cool as well – 10/10.
“March of the Witch Hunters” made me scared of Boq. Honestly, the Tin Man seems like an alpha male podcaster. This song was so good, and I love some good ensemble vocals. Mixed with the scenery, it was perfect – 9.9/10.
“The Girl in the Bubble” was honestly pretty good. It wasn’t one of my personal favorites, but it’s definitely the best song they added. It developed Glinda’s character, and it was a good song. I feel like this song would have a much larger emotional effect if they moved it to “Thank Goodness” because it would support the fact that Glinda realized she might have made the wrong choice. In addition, the mirrors were extremely distracting, but still cool – 7/10.
“For Good” will be the death of me. I love this song so much, and I sobbed to it both times in theaters. It adds so much to Elphaba and Glinda’s relationship, and feeds any Gelphie shippers – 11/10.
“Finale: For Good (reprise)” is so good. My favorite song is “No One Mourns the Wicked,” and I instantly got chills after hearing the first “Good News.” I love this song so much, but I enjoyed it more in the musical because I honestly don’t like that they resolved everything in the end (I understand why, but I enjoy the musical ending more) – 9/10.
Now that I’m done talking about the music, I’m going to rank the characters, going from worst to best. I’m only going to be rating ten main characters, and this is the characters themselves as well as what they add to the story. In 10th place is ShenShen. Her character adds literally nothing to the plot, and the character barely has any funny one-liners. I don’t understand why they included her in the second movie. In 9th place, Pfanne. The only reason he’s above ShenShen is that I like Bowen Yang, and I don’t know the actor. Pfanne is equally as pointless to the story, but at least he’s a little funny. In 8th place, the Cowardly Lion. I don’t like his character because he’s so whiny, and he didn’t experience any hardships? It doesn’t make much sense to me compared to Boq’s reasoning for hating Elphaba. At least he adds something to the story. In 7th place is Madame Morrible. I liked her character in the first movie, but she felt overly crammed into the story. I also didn’t like the choice of actor too much. Again, I don’t hate Michelle Yeoh, but this is not the character for her.
6th place is Nessa. Her character was fully developed, but her story wasn’t used to its fullest. During the first scene, when we see her as the new law is brought in, I would’ve wanted Boq to mention how she shouldn’t pass this law. Even though this action would make her seem like her sister, she wants Boq to be happy more than she wants to seem like her sister. However, when Boq later confesses that he doesn’t love her anymore, she should ban animals from traveling and ban munchkins from leaving in spite. This would make her seem much more evil, because it shows she doesn’t care about how she’s viewed as long as Boq suffers. Overall, they should’ve played into her Wicked Witch aspect more than they did. If I’m being honest, I forgot she was supposed to be evil.
5th place is the the hardest for me to decide, but I give it to Boq. I love Boq (not Ethan Slater, to be clear), but he’s not a fully developed character on screen. I wish they had added a song, a reprise, or something to show how Boq is feeling besides “March of the Witch Hunters,” as well as one about how Nessa destroyed everything around him because of him. A song similar to this would add more to both Nessa and Boq’s characters. I don’t like Ethan Slater, but he did an amazing job as the Tin Man. I already mentioned this, but he is terrifying during “March of the Witch Hunters.” The costume looked amazing and still looked like a person instead of some AI-generated bold glamor filter.
4th place will have to be the Wizard. I know – the wizard above Boq might be a hottake, but I liked the Wizard over Boq just a little bit. The Wizard is honestly such a silly character and yet so threatening the entire time. Every time he showed up on screen, it was a joy to watch. I do feel that his reasoning for leaving and the entire ending scene were very rushed, and they should’ve taken more time to develop his feelings over not being able to care for his daughter, who’s now dead. Overall, I love Jeff Goldblum, and he was the perfect choice for this role.
Now, I’m sorry, but 3rd place is going to have to be Elphaba. I know, I know – but outside of her songs, all the scenes felt like they weren’t as thought through as the first movie. I enjoy Cynthia Erivo’s singing, and I can tell she cares a lot about theater, but sometimes her acting fell a little flat for me. Overall, a very well-developed character, but the second movie seemed to abandon some of her story from the first movie. I’m not even sure what they could’ve added, but it feels like something is missing nonetheless. She’s still an amazing character, and here’s no one else I would cast as Elphaba. Cynthia Erivo’s acting wasn’t bad at all; it just wasn’t my favorite.
If I’m being honest, I want to put both Glinda and Fiyero in first place, but I think Fiyero is going to have to be 2nd. Jonathan Bailey is an amazing actor and singer, and fits Fiyero’s character perfectly. Even though Fiyero’s character is definitely not my favorite, the actor brings so much out of the character that I didn’t really see before. Fiyero’s character didn’t feel underdeveloped or lacking in many things. The only critique I have is of the costume for the scarecrow. I have no clue how else they could’ve changed his costume to make it look better, but I just wasn’t a fan of how much he ended up looking like Ryan Reynolds.
And finally, in 1st place we have Glinda. Ariana Grande put everything into playing Glinda, and it pays off wonderfully. Every scene with her feels real, no matter what she is doing. The only comment I have (like I said about the music) is that they should have rearranged the songs just a little bit, then added a “Girl in the Bubble” reprise where it originally happened. I also wish they had dropped the pink-only dress code for her, and maybe put her in different pastels, to reference the costumes in the musical. Ariana Grande’s acting was so good, and I feel like she can relate to the character, which made it easier for her to act. Either way, she’s a fabulous actress. Her singing range also fits very well with all the music. There is no one else I would rather cast as Glinda than Ariana Grande.
I feel like I’ve touched on the story and things I would change already, so now here are my thoughts on some random things throughout. First and most obvious is that I think the phrase “just a clock-tick” is overused. At first, it was cute, but after the 5th time, I was annoyed by it. I wish we could’ve gone further into the Wicked universe, and come up with other common sayings to insert in. More variety would’ve worked loads better than the same phrase crammed in every chance they get. The CGI animals looked amazing! I’m so glad the animals weren’t an eyesore, and actually looked and behaved like real animals. Madam Morrible’s dress when she was casting the spell to summon the tornado was gorgeous. If you didn’t see it, it was a deep blue with lightning patterns on the sleeves. That was one of Madam Morribles’ first outfits that actually felt weather-inspired. The number of propaganda posters in Madam Morribles’ office was overkill. There were SO many. They should have done furniture, chairs, and tables with piles of propaganda on them, rather than furniture that appeared to be made out of the posters themselves.
Anyways, those were my main complaints and favorites from Wicked: For Good. Based on my review, it might seem like I didn’t like Wicked, but it really is my current hyperfixation. I own merchandise and listen to the soundtrack constantly. My final thought is that Wicked: For Good is probably not the best movie to watch if you don’t like the Wicked franchise. I understand why the movie gets bad reviews, because the story is a little confusing. The second act is a lot sadder, with almost no big dance numbers. Overall, it was still a great movie for me, and I will definitely rewatch it.
