Wicked: For Good feels like the moment the curtain finally drops and everybody involved knows they have to stick the landing. It is bigger, darker, and more emotionally bruised than Part One, but it never loses the fairytale sweep that makes this version of Oz so easy to fall into. Director Jon M. Chu keeps the world in that glossy storybook space, yet he lets the second half breathe in ways that turn the friendship at the center into the real spectacle.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are the engine here. Erivo plays Elphaba with a mix of iron and ache that makes her “villain” label feel like the cruelest joke in the kingdom. Grande’s Glinda gets the juiciest growth, shifting from sparkle-first optimism into someone realizing the cost of staying on the sidelines. Their chemistry sells every hard turn the story takes, and when the movie circles back to why these two mattered to each other in the first place, it hits hard without feeling like it is trying to wring tears out of you.
The film’s biggest flex is how confidently it threads itself into The Wizard of Oz mythology. The connections are not just cute nods, they are story fuel. Watching the dominoes fall toward the world we all know gives the back half a kind of tragic momentum, especially once Dorothy’s shadow starts stretching across the timeline. If you loved catching those echoes in the stage show, the movie leans in even further, and it mostly pays off.
Musically, this is the payoff album. The returning songs land with real weight, and the new material fits neatly into the emotional arcs instead of feeling stapled on. The vocal performances are flat-out stellar across the board. Erivo is a force, Grande brings surprising control and warmth, and the ensemble never disappears into the background. Even when the film gets a little crowded with plot, the music pulls it back on track.
Visually, For Good is gorgeous in that “storybook filtered through a high-end fantasy epic” way. There is color everywhere, but it is a moodier palette than Part One, and the contrast fits where the story goes. Oz feels less like a playground now and more like a place where power is tightening its grip. The scale is huge, but it is the intimate bits that linger.
A quick note on formats: skip IMAX. The movie is presented in a wide scope frame and does not open up for full-screen IMAX sequences, so you are basically paying extra to watch the same image with black bars. A standard theater with upgraded sound, especially Dolby Atmos if you have it, is the sweet spot. The songs and orchestration deserve that punch, and you will not feel like you missed anything visually.
Is it perfect? Not quite. The middle stretch can feel a touch busy as it juggles politics, romance, and the machinery needed to connect to Oz history. A couple of transitions move faster than the emotions underneath them. But the film understands what people came for: the bond between Elphaba and Glinda, the heartbreak of how they end up on opposite sides of a legend, and the thrill of hearing these songs soar in a cinema.
If Part One was the rush of discovering a new corner of Oz, Wicked: For Good is the catharsis of watching that corner snap into place with the story we grew up with. It is moving, grand, and anchored by two leads who make you care every step of the way. I walked out feeling like this was the right kind of sequel: one that deepens what came before instead of just replaying it. For me, that lands around an 8 out of 10.
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