Good

[Editor’s note: This story contains spoilers for the end of “Wicked: For Good.”]

As bad as a scene can get in a movie that would work way better if the conflict was worse, the Underground Yellow Brick Road still seems like some ham-fisted symbolism, don’t you think? From Universal’s “Wicked: For Good,” that ridiculous moment comes midway through the second half of director Jon M. Chu’s epic musical blockbuster. It features a crowd of subjugated animals, so oppressed by their human overlords that they have been magically stripped of the ability to speak and forced to flee Oz on foot (or hoof).

The group uses a subterranean tunnel that’s literally beneath the Yellow Brick Road for the express purpose of evading animal slavery. That adapted American history lesson plays clumsily on the big screen, and even still, “For Good” doesn’t feel dramatic or important enough.

In theaters now, Chu’s highly anticipated follow-up to last year’s “Wicked” meets and at times even exceeds expectations when it comes to providing sparkly spectacle. But the sequel plays like a needlessly drawn-out coda, putting a bloated encore where many “Wicked” fans hoped a real fairy tale with a timely message might be.

The creators of “Wicked: For Good” would’ve done well to budget more of the time and energy they spent on the visual design to get better scripts with real stakes. A couple pick-ups could do the trick, too.

C’mon, Jon, You Had the Book Right There

Starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as vivid portraits of the one-dimensional witches we first met back in 1939’s “Wizard of Oz,” the modern “Wicked” duology follows in the imperial footsteps of Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and other major sci-fi and fantasy franchises to present an extraordinary world on the brink. Chu’s two “Wicked” movies are based on Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s long-running Broadway musical from 2003, which in turn loosely adapts author Gregory Maguire’s bleak 1995 novel, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.”

Across page, stage, and screen, each version feels different from the rest. But the story of Elphaba and Glinda soars highest when its teller chooses to focus on the girls’ unique friendship — a dynamic that’s more sterile but still meaningful in the book. That approach paid off when “Wicked” introduced the beloved characters to the big screen last year, but “For Good” turns the narrative North Star into a tonally frustrating crutch Chu can’t seem to shake in the lesser film. 

Presenting a menagerie of beaded costumes and belted solos in lieu of any real perspective on political discourse, the “Wicked” sequel appears aimed at giving movie-goers more of the same song-and-dance they loved in the first half. But the result is far less. “For Good” loses the taut playfulness that made the earlier “Wicked” snap by attempting to pit Elphaba and Glinda against an enemy that’s often unseen and perpetually nondescript.

Both Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) and the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) leave their scariest moments back in 2024, and even the authoritarian cogs they set in motion then don’t make a significant enough impact on the framing of “For Good” to motivate the story that’s developing in theaters now.

Frequently compared to dystopian touchstones like Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Maguire’s painstaking literary text was right there for Chu’s inspiration. It’s got creepy dolls hiding deep-state surveillance tech; Holocaust-like experiments performed on fluffy victims; the pervasive sense that anything and everything in Oz could be waiting to ensnare Elphaba like its Big Brother in “1984.”

And yet, “For Good” doggedly shies away from the darkness — something these witches needed if Chu wanted their tortured connection to really sing a second time.

Tell Me Cows Can Talk, or Give ‘Em Something to Cry About

In her review, IndieWire’s Kate Erbland explained how the year-long intermission between “Wicked” and “For Good” made the second movie not only more disorienting but harder to connect with emotionally. That disconnect might have been alleviated with a stronger first scene.

This alternate beginning doesn’t have to be seriously “scary” but it should at least show who in Oz is being hurt by the ruling class and why. Opening on a forgettable brick-laying sequence — in which some horned cow-things, who could talk probably at one point but can’t now and are having a bad time working their jobs in construction… or something? — “For Good” needed a harder rock bottom to successfully set up peril and unrest in Emerald City as tangible threats suggesting a hidden dystopia.

From the bloody sewers of “Sweeney Todd” to the storybook pages of “Into the Woods,” the overture has given countless musical filmmakers the ideal chance to show-not-tell audiences about the worlds they’re entering from the start. Instead, “For Good” feels like it comes out of nowhere. Chu fails to explain the magic lurking behind those cow-things’ eyes, and Elphaba makes an outsized display of riding in on her broom to save them from what looks like basically a crappy workday sans context. 

Not knowing what the herd’s life was like before they encountered the Wicked Witch or the jerks managing their long haul down the Yellowbrick Road, their gig doesn’t look great, but it’s not even “Office Space” bad. What’s worse, the other Ozians are effectively given a pass for doing nothing in the face of entire of species forced into slavery because the scenario is so weirdly wooden and unclear.

The central conflict is illuminated only marginally better when Elphaba’s sister Nessa (Marissa Bode), now a corrupt governor, passes a law forbidding her Munchkin prisoner, Boq (Ethan Slater), from traveling later in the movie. But even then, “For Good” flinches away from the cruelty at hand — rarely showing Nessa’s angry face (was her acting too good?) and exercising more restraint than they need when Boq becomes the Tin Man. That scaredy-cat ethos carries through a number of other scenes: some that do show animals locked in cages but remain ambiguous and inoffensive enough for the idea to miss most children. 

If You’re Gonna Keep the Goat Alive, Let the Professor Speak!

Through that underwhelming haze, the familiar muzzle of Dr. Dillamond (previously voiced by Peter Dinklage) breaks through — just not enough. In the first half of “Wicked,” the former Shiz University professor lost his ability to speak during a horrifying classroom scene that recalls all those nightmarish Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons we saw go wrong in Harry Potter.

Dr. Dillamond is even more important in Maguire’s book, and his political assassination (yes, that goat gets straight-up murdered, bro!) serves as an important political symbol and driving force behind Elphaba’s radicalization. The live musical dropped that bit and Chu was probably right to soften the blow for the movies, too. But if you’re going to bother not keeping a recognizable victim around, and routinely use him as a visual reference to explain what Elphaba and Glinda do and don’t know about the plot that’s unfolding, then he deserves his due. 

“For Good” already has a number of celebratory scenes showing what happens as news of Elphaba’s death reverberates throughout Oz. But Chu needed to put a finer point on the societal transformation the Wicked Witch and her best friend gave up their friendship to create. Dr. Dillamond would’ve been the perfect way to do it, even if Dinklage cost the movie extra. 

For whatever reason, “For Good” seems hell-bent on throwing away many of its best reveals. Most painfully, Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) has his tragic Scarecrow evolution stretched over several scenes, before it concludes  in a romantic beat where body horror doesn’t fit. But Dr. Dillamond doesn’t even get to finish his arc between “Wicked” and “For Good,” as the duology, seemingly desperate to fill time at every other turn, makes the baffling choice to cast out the academic quadruped-like Animal. 

Despite Dinklage warmly promoting his small voice part in Chu’s films, the “Wicked” movies ultimately decide Dr. Dillamond works better as a subplot that’s seen but not heard in the back half. Amid all  the poppies and propaganda, you get a glimpse of his weary enlightened face. Of course, that could never replace the audible triumph he deserved in a scene that should have just let him speak. 

“Wicked: For Good” is in theaters now.