On November 21, Wicked: For Good dropped in theaters, the second installment of the first film based on the popular musical. Fans ran to the theaters in anticipation, excited to see how the Wicked Franchise concludes. 

I was lucky enough to see it on opening night when my theater wasn’t completely sold out, and I was amazed by the songs, the acting, and the costume design. This movie really outdid itself, and I think it’s going to set the standard for musical movie adaptations to come.

To me, this movie felt more Glinda-sided. We see more of Glinda’s perspective and how she responds to Elphaba’s antics. We still see Elphaba’s story, but we also see how Glinda adapts to being the good witch of Oz and how her relationship with Fiyero evolves, for better or worse, since she doesn’t know about Fiyero’s secret feelings for Elphaba. This makes you question what Fiyero will do next and how his decisions will influence both Glinda and Elphaba.

The introduction of Nessa as a strict governor was a big contrast compared to her friendly character in the first movie. She removed rights for most of the Munchkins and didn’t let Boq leave Munchkinland. 

Boq later transformed into the Tin Man due to a disastrous spell. The costume design of the Tin Man made Boq unrecognizable, creating a scary image of him. His character changes as his only motive is to find Elphaba, whom he thinks put the spell on him. I noticed it was a complete contrast to The Wizard of Oz’s tin man, where all he wanted was to have a heart.

 A disastrous wedding, a tornado, and traveling Dorothy later, we reach the climax of the movie. 

Elphaba willingly sacrifices herself for Dorothy while Glinda watches, but we later see that she didn’t sacrifice herself after all. It was hard for me to watch their final goodbye, but it showed both perspectives of how life would be different without each other by their sides. The movie’s ending shows growth for both Glinda and Elphaba. We saw Glinda as this popular, stubborn girl, who fought with Elphaba and always thought about herself. Now she stays by Elphaba’s side regardless of her being caught and has become her best friend. Elphaba continues to fight for animal rights, but shows that even when doing the right thing, not everyone will be on your side. Each character had a motive surrounding Elphaba, whether good or bad, and in the end, she wasn’t able to handle it all. The theme of it all was that both of them and even other characters were changed for good, just like the title, and how they handle that change will be up to them

Things I enjoyed were the songs. I definitely like the songs better in the second movie than the first; the emotion in the acting really sold each scene, giving them more feeling. As someone who hadn’t seen the musicals beforehand, the plot twists were interesting to me, and I didn’t know what would happen next, which is what makes Wicked enjoyable. 

Once I left the movie theater, I was eager to find theories and learn more about the background of the characters and scenes, and that made me want to watch the movie over and over to see things I had missed. There’s more than enough hidden themes and foreshadowing spread out throughout the film. Wicked: For Good was an outstanding movie, and I think it’s a movie worth seeing.