Wicked: For Good
The second part to last year’s hit1, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo star.
If this is true to the musical, then perhaps the second half of Wicked isn’t all that interesting with begin with? The songs aren’t as strong and you can’t help but feel that the emotional momentum of the film got killed by chopping the story in half. Tricky for a film largely about friendship!
The sense of fun and whimsy is gone here as things take a more serious turn, and much of what I enjoyed about the last film is gone. I’m not sure I was even into the performances that much, with the two leads doing ‘concerned face’ for 90% of the run time.
What is also unfortunate—and maybe this is a mad thing to say about Wicked—is the link to The Wizard of Oz. I simply don’t care about the tin man’s back story, and seeing it rendered on screen is faintly risible. We also get the Scarecrow’s story and it’s also unintentionally amusing.
Yeah there’s some real production budget gone into this and that’s always fun to see on the big screen. However, the lack of stakes here ultimately left me cold and wanting it to end.