Jonah Naplan   November 20, 2025

By the time “Wicked: For Good” has its opening weekend, the pop culture world has already been well overtaken (again) by the phenomenon of Stephen Schwartz’s 2003 musical and part one of its official Hollywood film adaptation. Last year’s “Wicked” blew up because it was so terrific on all counts, between the performances that wonderfully captured the essence of the originating actresses, and the technical excellence of the VFX and set designs. It was also super entertaining with some very catchy tunes, reinventing the land of Oz as a genuine place of wonder with just the right twist of realism without completely veering away from the fantastical. I named it one of the best movies of 2024. Director Jon M. Chu (“In the Heights,” “Crazy Rich Asians”) set a high bar.

To say that “Wicked: For Good” doesn’t come anywhere close to the standards of the first movie would be a gross understatement. There’s nothing about this feature adaptation of act two of the beloved stage musical that’s done better than its predecessor. I certainly believe the first act is the stronger one anyway, so the odds would probably always be more in that movie’s favor, but there’s still so much here that could have been dramatically improved, both for diehard fans and newbies alike. Above all, “Wicked: For Good,” unlike other second parts like “Dune: Part Two” or “Avengers: Endgame,” could never be casually watched on its own without the first movie preceding it. Despite a handful of really strong bits, the movie’s connective tissue is so frayed and bound to fall apart at the drop of a hat that the experience as a whole lands as one of the clunkiest of 2025.

There can’t be much at all to really “spoil” here about the plot, but I’ll refrain from describing how the filmmakers exactly go about executing the key songs and moments from act two so the fans can experience them for the first time for themselves. When the film opens, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the green-skinned outsider of Shiz University, has gone fully rogue as the Wicked Witch, on a mission to expose the lies and corruption of the Wizard of Oz. Meanwhile, back in Munchkinland, Glinda (Ariana Grande) has become a leader for the people, alongside Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), secretly commiserating over the absence of her friend and worrying about her future. In Dana Fox and Winnie Holzman’s screenplay’s disjointed way of jumping around aimlessly, we also end up following Nessarose (Marissa Bode), Elphaba’s younger paraplegic sister, who’s become a cruel and tyrannical governor of the land, driven by her suppressed insecurities and desperation for the love of the kindly Boq (Ethan Slater). Add to that the Wizard himself (Jeff Goldblum) and Shiz headmistress Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), and Chu’s got a fiery group of characters that he can’t decide what to do with.

You might think that this star returning cast would be able to thrive once again in such familiar territory (both Erivo and Grande scored Oscar nominations for the first “Wicked”), but nobody is nearly as good as they were a year ago, while the often awkward nature of the plotting reveals some poor casting choices that I had not caught previously. The two leads remain the strongest parts of the whole thing, developing their friendship in a deeper, more intimate way, even if from a distance. Of course, the main attraction of “Wicked: For Good” is the duet that gives the film its title, and the number is indeed powerful enough to leave many fans feeling as though they got their money’s worth from those five minutes alone. But despite both actresses giving it their all, the movie’s handling of their growing rivalry as the stakes continue to escalate is at times corny and altogether outlandish, including a truly bizarre sequence where Elphaba and Glinda quite literally start physically attacking each other in a strain of credibility that lacks the dynamism and comedic timing to be effective.

Chu’s technical prowess with big musical sequences is put on display again here, but he feels dramatically more restrained this time around. The standouts are Elphaba’s big number “No Good Deed,” sort of an act two counterpart to “Defying Gravity,” as well as her duet with Fiyero, “As Long as You’re Mine,” the latter of which is a sly departure from all of songwriter Stephen Schwartz’s other compositions in a sexy way. Schwartz also wrote two new songs for this movie, and they’re both not great, adding to a runtime that certainly did not need to be any longer. At least Schwartz’s Broadway show knew to be concise (if you could call two-and-a-half hours concise); instead this two-part film adaptation would now run over five hours if you were to watch the movies back-to-back, and all the extra fluff undermines the stuff that really works.

Of course, L. Frank Baum’s original 1900 novel plays into the plotting of the second act of “Wicked” in more ways than one. The dramatic introductions of characters like Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion (voiced by Colman Domingo, with two lines!) prove that “For Good” is more focused on fleshing out the beginnings of “The Wizard of Oz” than wrapping up the tale of “Wicked.” Remember the scene in the first movie when Goldblum’s Wizard and the two girls pick out the color of a certain brick road? There’s probably about a dozen moments in this movie as unsubtle and on-the-nose as that one. If it weren’t for the strong bits, it would be fair for one to accuse “Wicked: For Good” as just being a fan service compendium, professionally designed to have the audience pointing at the screen in excitement at something they recognize.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the film’s attempts to capitalize on such a wonderfully familiar property ends up more of a backhanded slap to the face than a thematic asset. Despite the immersive production design by Nathan Crowley and always astounding costumes from Paul Tazewell, “For Good” is unable to match the whimsical intricacies of Baum’s story that inspired it all. The first “Wicked” did such a great job of communicating magic and wonder without becoming too silly or obnoxious. This movie can’t quite seem to hit the right balance. The special effects feel significantly downgraded and less believable (were the filmmakers rushed to release this only a year after the predecessor?), with even essential bits like Elphaba flying around on her broomstick looking cartoonish rather than credible. The worst of the worst is a de-aged Jeff Goldblum towards the end that’s some of the worst modern CGI I think I’ve ever seen, echoing those “uncanny valley” figures you might see in a wax museum. The Wizard may call himself “Mr. Wonderful,” but the result is closer to horrid.

Watching “For Good,” you can feel a better movie aching to burst through the margins, because the great pieces are all there. Moments of inspiration, including brief glimpses towards the end of a broader message about discrimination, racism, and authoritarianism, give the film real-world applications beyond just the story of a fractured friendship that young women may connect to. But the movie is distracted by so much else that these themes ultimately get swept under the rug. What remains is an emotionally empty experience that’s unengaging even while so much is going on, and the inconsistent pacing makes even the exciting sections feel hollow.

Of course, the movie will probably make more than half-a-billion dollars anyway no matter what a critic like me has to say about it, and most fans will likely be satisfied simply because they adore the source material on which it’s based. But I still believe there’s worth in saying that the movie should have been better and absolutely could have been better. All of the marketing boasts “You Will Be Changed,” but it’s the movie itself that needed to be polished before it could be called anything close to transformative.

Now playing in theaters.