As we now have Wicked: For Good out in theaters, people have been going crazy making sure to see the most anticipated movie of the year as soon as possible. It is safe to say that the movie definitely made a ton of money on opening weekend and there is more to come as the weeks go by with how long it will stay in theaters. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the movie would be out for months since the first Wicked movie stayed in theaters for months and people were going to see it more than once. However, even if the movie is doing good sales wise, there has been lots of talk and different opinions on what people think about the second part of the movie online – which could raise the question about whether the movie was really good or not, and if people were truly changed for good. Now that I have seen this movie, I, the Her Campus at Pace Wicked correspondent, am here to talk about my thoughts and opinions about Wicked: For Good and to answer the most asked question people are asking nowadays: Have I been changed for good?
My experience from seeing the movie was wonderful! I had a nice little Wicked themed outfit of course, with a nice sweater that was pink and had a design of Wicked along with wearing Aldo’s official Wicked Glinda sneakers that they came out with last year. I had to bring my Wicked tumbler for my slushie of course, because how can you not bring some type of merch with you to see this movie? I loved how my friends were the ones to dress up in black and green as Elphaba and I was the one that was shining as I was dressed as Glinda basically. It was so wonderful to see how everyone was getting into the spirit of seeing this movie by dressing up and bringing their merchandise to make the experience more enjoyable. It was definitely known that once everyone was getting to their seats in that theater, everyone was ready to witness the epic conclusion of Elphaba and Glinda’s story. It felt like all of the ads and trailers that were playing before the movie were taking forever, and the Wicked team knew what they were doing by putting a message from Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande before the movie started, which got people on the edge of their seats. Once the opening titles of Universal and the intro to the movie started playing, all you could feel was so many chills running through your body.
The whole movie was very good. It was exciting, emotional, and crazy! It was definitely a good watch and great movie to continue the story after the first part of Wicked. However, I will say that this movie did have some flaws compared to part one. This movie captured the essence of the second act of Wicked on Broadway; however, with so many changes – the music, added scenes, deleted scenes, characters, etc – I fear that there was too much that wasn’t necessary for the movie. As a fan of Wicked on Broadway first, I have to say I was disappointed at some of the changes that they made and was questioning why they made these changes in the first place. I understand that not everything can be the same, but I believe in the saying that “what isn’t broken shouldn’t be fixed.” I hate to say it, but only the first movie of Wicked lived up to Wicked on Broadway and Wicked: For Good did not live up to the show on Broadway unfortunately. Don’t get me wrong though – this wasn’t a terrible movie, it is a good watch – but it didn’t go as well in my opinion.
So, with that being said, what’s my final rating of Wicked: For Good? 8/10. I wish I could give this movie a 10/10, but I truly expected and wanted more. I feel like Wicked: For Good didn’t do as well as part one of Wicked because so many people, including me, agree that the second act of the Broadway show is very quick and doesn’t put its best foot forward compared to act one, which is why I feel like I disappointed with Wicked: For Good. I feel like they went with the same approach with Wicked: For Good and rushed it and didn’t care for it compared to part one of Wicked just like with the Broadway show. It’s very sad because you could do so much with a movie, but they didn’t take that advantage sadly. This could have been their moment to make all of act two so much better and they just kinda blew it. I’m actually really hoping that Wicked could get a remake movie in the future and could possibly get a better movie for act two. If they would go with the same approach as Jon M. Chu did or even made it into one big movie, because to this day, I really don’t think it was necessary to make two separate movies or understand the choices of making this into two movies.
It also gets me annoyed because the Wicked team gave so much expectations and excitement for this second movie, and I honestly feel like they didn’t fulfill these expectations for Wicked on Broadway fans. It makes me wonder how the movie would have come out if it didn’t get delayed for so long and had the first director that they had from the beginning talk about making the Wicked movie, and would have been one movie overall. I know that there is a lot of talk on social media that Wicked fans of the show are disappointed with the results from Wicked: For Good. I feel like the people that haven’t seen the show on Broadway aren’t too mad about the movie since they don’t know the difference between the Broadway show and the movie, which is definitely okay. At the end of the day, since people are loving both movies so much, Wicked on Broadway is going to get a lot more people coming to see the show more than ever now.
Overall, please don’t let my opinions of the movie affect your choices of going to see it. It was a good movie and truly wasn’t terrible; I just really wanted more and believed that the movie could have done so much better. It is an enjoyable watch and worth seeing in theaters at least once. So please go find the yellow brick road and head off to the land of Oz one more time to go see Wicked: For Good and see the epic conclusion of the story of these two witches, you will be changed for good.