Reviews For The Easily Distracted: Wicked: For Good

Title: Wicked: For Good

Describe This Movie In One Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Quote:
RAOUL DUKE: And a voice was screaming: “Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?”

Brief Plot Synopsis: We’re off to … off the Wizard.

Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 3 Dark Side of the Moon albums out of 5.

Tagline: “You will be changed.”

Better Tagline: “This could’ve been a musical email.”

Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: After breaking with the Wizard (Jeff Golblum) and power behind the throne Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) has become Oz’s Most Wanted. This puts her friend Glinda (Ariana Grande) in a difficult position, balancing her position as face of the regime — and impending wedding to Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) — while running interference for Elphaba as the “Wicked Witch” plots to stop the Wizard.

“Critical” Analysis: I wasn’t a fan of last year’s Wicked. The washed out palette, the forced theater kid enthusiasm, the fact that director John M. Chu snuck that “Part I” in at the very beginning, thereby assuring Universal could milk this tornado cow for another entire movie didn’t sit well. So to say my hopes weren’t high for its sequel is putting it mildly.

So Technicolor me surprised that Wicked: For Good, while far from a perfect movie, is actually superior to the original (if mostly unnecessary). Chalk that up to the added emotional heft, bravura performances from Erivo and Grande, and — hear me out — a reduced emphasis on big-ass Broadway style production numbers.

That same fidelity to the original musical that created such a devoted following also constrained Wicked’s potential. Chu was beholden to the big to-do of songs like an expanded “Dancing Though Life,” attempting to recapture that Broadway feeling. It also led to a real fear that a follow-up to a frontloaded Wicked wouldn’t be able to sustain that energy.

And while that’s pretty accurate, it turns out the lack of showstoppers like “Defying Gravity” helps make Wicked: For Good more of a “real movie.” And as aggravating as it can be to hear characters drop into sung dialogue (I love you, Michelle Yeoh; but please never do that again), there’s at least some effort put into pushing the action without the constant heartfelt YEARNING of the original.

Don’t get me wrong, because there’s plenty not to like here. Certain characters (Marissa Bode’s Nessarose, for one) deliberate inability or unwillingness to acknowledge their shittiness, or apex predators like Dulcibear’s (Sharon D. Clarke) failure to realize they could easily disembowel the fucking Wizard. For that matter, it would seem an easy task for Elphaba to dispatch a guy who’s only claim to fame is a penchant for sleight of hand (and he sings a whole song about it, of course)

And while we’re on the subject, Jeff Goldblum morphed into playing himself (a la Samuel L. Jackson) so gradually I hardly noticed.

The Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-ing of the events of The Wizard of Oz is big part of Wicked and For Good’s appeal, but it’s laid on a bit thick here, expanding on the original Dorothy silhouetting to include actual shots of the character and her entourage (courtesy of Elphaba’s well-intentioned but off-target magic). I’m not sure if Chu thought audiences were too dumb to put two and two together or Universal demanded it, but it’s unnecessary.

Regarding that theory, the studio interference angle makes the most sense, because — again — there is no reason to expand Wicked into two movies outside of a naked cash grab*. Wicked: For Good plods along until the second act, when the action picks up, but it would have worked as well, if not better, as the climax to the first movie.

But Chu manages some interesting non-stagey shots, juxtaposing Glinda’s walk down the aisle with Elphaba discovery of the animals caged by the Wizard (expanding on her finding Doctor Dillamond), and the parting shot of witches separated by a door (that apparently almost didn’t happen). Wicked: For Good finally gets it into gear after Elphaba and Fiyero get it on and the former embraces her devilish, no … villainous nature? It’ll come to me.

I liked Wicked: For Good. Is it too long? Sure. Is it still painfully washed out? Yes. Does it stretch out subplots better left abandoned? Also yes. But the chemistry between Grande and Erivo feels more authentic, and the so-called “weaker” numbers pack more of a punch, probably because there are fewer of them. And who doesn’t love a villain origin story?

Ask A 16-Year Old:
RFTED: Are we leaving?
16YO: Why would you want to watch the credits?
RFTED: Maybe there’ll be a stinger for the next Avengers movie.
16YO: We’re going.

*And it worked. The movie grossed $147 million its opening weekend.

Wicked: For Good is in theaters today.

The post Reviews For The Easily Distracted: <i>Wicked: For Good</i> appeared first on Houston Press.