Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are back as Glinda and Elphaba in Wicked For Good Universal
Any Wicked fan will tell you the second half of the stage musical struggles to match up to the dazzling heights of the first.
So, there was concern when director John M Chu announced he would be splitting the big-screen adaptation into two parts, with many wondered how this decision would work, and if the musical sequel could fix some of the on-stage wrongs.
Last year, the first Wicked movie proved to be a huge hit commercially and critically, with positive reviews for Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba and Ariana Grande’s Glinda, as well as 10 Oscar nominations and two wins.
And while admittedly the reviews for Wicked For Good are far from terrible, not every critic seems quite able to muster the same energy for the musical sequel as the original 2024 film.
Here is what critics are saying about Wicked For Good…
The Standard (5/5)
“Without being heavy-handed, Chu has transformed a fable about accepting difference into a call to action to protect one’s neighbours from cages and deportation. The new songs blend almost seamlessly, in part due to No Place Like Home hammering that theme home.
“Everything is stitched together beautifully to create an exhilarating piece of movie musical magic that re-invents the Golden Age. If it doesn’t get more Oscars I’ll eat my witch’s hat.”
The Guardian (4/5)
“It keeps the rainbow-coloured dreaminess and the Broadway show tune zinginess from part one, and we still get those periodic, surreal pronouncements given by the city’s notables to the diverse folk of Oz, those non-player characters crowding the streets.”
Elphaba arrives at a familiar sight in Wicked For Good Universal
BBC Culture (4/5)
“Let’s be clear: the Wicked films are the definition of preaching to the choir. They aren’t likely to win over anyone sceptical of candy-coloured spectacle and overt sentimentality presented in Broadway show-stopping fashion. Wicked is what it is. But if you’re fine with that, this latest instalment is more captivating than the last and enjoyable to watch throughout.”
The Times (4/5)
“They’ve only gone and done it. The makers of this musical sequel have delivered a film that surpasses last year’s box-office smash in verve, ambition and emotional ache.”
The Hollywood Reporter
“Sure, all but one of the show’s most memorable songs are in the first act, but the investment in character, story and sumptuous design more than compensates in Wicked For Good, which again shows that casting stellar vocal talents Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande was a masterstroke.”
Variety
“The art nouveau-style sets and ornate costumes are nothing short of astonishing, though the film relies more heavily on virtual effects, eschewing the techniques that made the blend of practical and virtual elements so seamless last time. The emotions are real; everything else is movie magic, representing where we now stand – at the apex of artificiality – for better or worse.”
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were both nominated for Oscars for their work in the first Wicked film Universal
IndieWire (B-)
“Much like Wicked, Wicked For Good works its way up to a massive duet between the pair, so emotionally resonant that even the most wicked of audience members will still likely shed a tear (the song is, of course, For Good). It’s an unmitigated high note, but it’s a lonely one indeed. Is it alone worth the wait? Maybe, why couldn’t the entire film feel that way?”
AP News (2/4)
“All the momentum that Wicked For Good does gather is owed significantly to its stars. To a large degree, these movies have been the Erivo-and-Grande show, a grand spectacle of female friendship that rises above all the petty biases and misjudgments to forge a vision of harmony in opposites. It’s a compelling vision, and Chu, as he did in the triumphant Defying Gravity culmination of part one, knows how to stick the landing.”
Vulture
“Interestingly, this time around, director Chu seems less interested in staging epic sequences and choreographing ambitious dance sequences, opting instead for an old-school intimacy with his musical numbers […] all this not only keeps Wicked For Good from feeling like a rehash, but it also fills out the drama.
“It would be silly to call this new movie quiet – it’s so totally not – but it is altogether more sombre, more focused, more human than the first film. And it brings the Wicked cycle to a surprisingly satisfying conclusion, at least for now.”
Digital Spy (3/5)
“For some fans, it might be enough to get more of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s excellent performances that confirm they were perfect casting for the roles. For others, though, Wicked For Good won’t prove to be quite as wonderful as the first movie.”
IGN (6/10)
“Wicked 2 is certainly long enough to lay everything out in a sensible manner (at 137 minutes, it’s only 20 minutes shorter than the first movie), but seems to think that audiences will just go ahead and fill in the blanks for themselves. Its songs and talent are certainly good enough to coast on, but it still fails to make the case for translating a beloved stage show to two just-okay films. It’s time for this bubble to pop.”
Jonathan Bailey and Ariana Grande in character as Fiyero and Glinda in Wicked For Good Universal
Empire (3/5)
“There are other frustrations: the original main story of The Wizard Of Oz runs parallel to this [but] scenes from it are omitted, perhaps so as not to tread on the toes of the mothership, a choice which leaves the storytelling feeling both slow and rushed.
“Still, the origin-story reveals of the Tin Man and the Scarecrow are fun, played like body-horror nightmares, and thanks to some undeniably talented performers, the film just about completes the magic trick of the original books and show: reframing the Oz myth in a political, emotionally potent light. Not quite over the rainbow, then, but just enough of its colours and candour to get by.”
Rolling Stone
“Wicked‘s peaks come early, and this cinematic sibling is mostly left to tie up loose ends. There are a few decent numbers left. Erivo still makes you feel like she owns this role. But for better or worse, For Good mostly feels like a mere reprise of the first film’s candy-coloured cacophony, only with the volume slightly turned down.”
The Financial Times (3/5)
“If Wicked was a risk, For Good takes the weight of splitting a single stage show into two movies. Where a third act would be in a self-contained story, Chu and writers Dana Fox and Winnie Holzman now expand and elaborate. The mood is gloomier, the structure trickier.”
The AV Club
“It’s endearing that Wicked For Good works best in those smaller-scale moments, and disappointing to realise how few of them the movie parcels out. The baffling ‘realistic’ drabness that dimmed the first movie’s colours returns here in full force, only now it feels like a motif for a story where characters and storylines smudge together with Wizard Of Oz plot points, blurring the lines between on-screen and off-screen action.”
TheWrap
“The first Wicked worked as a movie. Wicked For Good collapses because it doesn’t, either as a standalone film or as the second half of another. It’s rushing to the finish line, desperately cramming in all the elements it’s obligated to cram in, rarely making an effort to justify those newer plot developments and character turns. And it sure as heck doesn’t dramatise them convincingly.”
The Independent (2/5)
“For Good has little sense of movement, literally or emotionally – no profound revelations, no wonder or spectacle. All that’s to be done now is for each character to process, via standardised ballad, what they’ve learned, as they wander aimlessly around dimly lit woods or millennial-pink bedrooms, in the same cycle of mid-shots and close-ups.”
The Telegraph (1/5)
“Ariana Grande is painfully wooden in Wicked’s irritating sequel […] Erivo is a little better – you certainly buy her inner torment – but the pair’s strained friendship rings false, and what should be piercing, impassioned moments are by turns frivolous and sappy.”
Wicked For Good is in cinemas from Friday 21 November.
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