The Quill & The Cross

Summary

Wicked: For Good picks up where the first Wicked movie ends: Elphaba is now known as the Wicked Witch and Glinda is celebrated as Glinda the Good in the Emerald City. Elphaba is on the run, fighting for animal rights, trying to convince the rest of Oz that the Wizard lies. Not to mention Prince Fiyero and the Ozian guards are searching for her. As political unrest grows and an angry mob rises against the Wicked Witch, she’ll need to reunite with Glinda to transform herself, and all of Oz, for good.

Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Marissa Bode

My Review

My Rating: 3/5

My Recommended Age: 12+

Things To Be Aware Of

Violence: 3/5 (Animals are mistreated throughout the movie, and the flying monkeys can be a little scary. A mob forms to kill Elphaba, and people try to kill her multiple times. People are held at gunpoint and threatened. We see brief shots of a man being beaten, and that scene can be a bit intense. After a spell gone wrong, a man nearly dies, bending over in pain and clutching his heart. Elphaba and Glinda get into a fight, but it’s pretty slapstick. A house is dropped on a woman: we see the house falling, but we don’t see the aftermath. We see Elphaba’s silhouette as she “melts”. A stampede of animals interupts a wedding.)

Sexual Content: 3/5 (Fiyero learns he’s engaged to Glinda when she announces it to all of Oz. It’s obvious he loves Elphaba, though, so when their wedding is interrupted, he leaves with her. There’s an incredibly unnecessary scene where Fiyero and Elphaba sing a song with some provocative lyrics as they begin to undress-Fiyero taking off his jacket and Elphaba to a tank/shorts outfit. They kiss and the camera cuts away as they kiss on Elphaba’s bed. The next scene they’re laying under a blanket with Fiyero shirtless. A man breaks up with a woman because he’s actually in love with another woman. Glinda and Fiyero kiss a couple times. We find out Elphaba’s mother had an affair with another man.)

Language: 1/5 (The name of the school, Shiz, is used as an exclamation.)

Other Negative Content: 2/5 (Good and evil can get a little mixed up: Elphaba is good, but regarded as bad. The wizard is bad, but regarded as good. Glinda can be very self-centered, denying the wizard is evil because she likes the attention.)

My Take

I’m not a huge Wicked fan, but I saw the first one when it came out and I enjoyed it. It’s definitely magical, larger-than-life, and has a ton of catchy songs. Wicked: For Good felt about the same as the first: eye-popping visuals, magic, and dramatic songs. It was a lot more intense though-the first one is whimsical and fun and we only get a little bit of the darker side of Oz. Wicked: For Good dives right into that, with Elphaba fighting against the Wizard and with people doing all sorts of questionable things in the name of good. Like, Glinda is Elphaba’s friend, but she betrays her, but then she comes back to her, but then she betrays her, and then finally they’re best friends and Glinda is truly good. Right and wrong seem very blurred. It also contains more intense scenes: people die and in one pretty intense scenes we see clips of a man getting beaten, although we don’t see an up-close look.

The romantic scene between Fiyero and Elphaba made me mad: it’s a five-minute scene of them singing a song about “making the most of the night” and being more intimate than you’d think a PG film would allow. It’s never explicit, but its way too suggestive. And its completely unnecessary. Other than the one scene it is pretty clean, but it annoyed me that they put it in the movie in the first place.

I’d say I did enjoy the music itself better in the first Wicked, but the story better in Wicked: For Good. It does get a bit darker and more emotional and I tend to like deeper movies a bit more. Maybe I just like to cry…? There is a touching scene in Wicked: For Good between Elphaba and Glinda that I did almost cry for. It does have some beautiful moments: Fiyero sacrifices himself for Elphaba and at the end Glinda and Elphaba forgive each other for everything and part ways best friends.

Overall it’s a visually stunning movie and it does manage to keep some of the whimsical feeling of the first movie. I definitely enjoyed it, and it was entertaining, but I’m not sure Wicked is deserving of the hype its getting. Wicked: For Good doesn’t boast the same breathtaking songs as the first, but its entertaining and magical and you can get invested in Elphaba and Glinda’s story. But I guess it just didn’t tickle my fancy. I was not obsessulated. But it wasn’t horrendible.