Despite a title that implied it’d offer the complete story, 2024’s Wicked only covered the first act of the stage show it adapted. To get the rest of the story, fans needed to wait for 2025’s Wicked: For Good.

Because she opposes the sham totalitarian regime run by the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), sorceress Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) finds herself slandered as “The Wicked Witch of the West”. She goes into exile to plan her fight against the Wizard and his forces.

In the meantime, Elphaba’s former bestie Glinda Upland (Ariana Grande) aligns with the Wizard, a choice that makes her a propaganda arm known as “Glinda the Good”. These two sides veer toward confrontation, all while a mysterious foreign girl marches toward the Emerald City.

For Good comes an unspecified span of time after the conclusion to Wicked, a choice that means the audience needs to fill in some gaps about events during the intervening period. That said, these don’t seem glaring, as the second chapter gives us enough nuggets that we can figure out developments on our own.

While this should mean For Good proceeds at a brisk clip, the decision to make the 150-minute stage show into two films that total 277 minutes minus end credits rears its ugly head here. I felt Wicked used that extra time well, mainly because it needed to run through exposition and character introductions/development.

As noted, For Good doesn’t spend much time with updates on Elphaba, Glinda and the rest. It launches pretty briskly into the action, and this means it probably should crank along at a faster pace than its predecessor.

Instead, the opposite happens, as For Good doesn’t manage to fill its space as well as Wicked does. On stage, the first act spanned about 90 minutes and the second went approximately 60 minutes.

The 160-minute Wicked connects to the 137-minute For Good. This means whereas Act Two of the live version went about 67 percent as long as Act One, For Good takes up roughly 85 percent the length of Wicked.

I mention this to explain part of the reason I feel For Good feels more padded than Wicked does. Act Two naturally lacks the same amount of content found in Act One, so the fact For Good fills 85 percent of its predecessor’s running time vs. the 67 percent of the stage show implies the filmmakers felt the need to add to it.

Which I get, as they didn’t want the two movies to seem too unbalanced in terms of length. A For Good that went 67 percent of Wicked would make it 107 minutes, a substantial reduction in time.

Did the producers fear audiences would feel ripped off by a considerably shorter For Good? I don’t know, but the manner in which it explores the story leads me to feel that way, as I can’t claim the added material serves the production.

Though I don’t think For Good suffers from poor pacing, it does seem erratic. While the first film integrated its songs cleanly, too often I feel For Good grinds to a halt to interject tunes that don’t really serve the overall narrative.

These become the biggest issue. Just as the movie needs to push toward its climax, it pauses for unnecessary musical numbers.

Darker than Wicked, For Good also suffers from some inconsistent tonal choices. Much of the first film stayed reasonably light, but the story of For Good requires a more serious vibe.

Which it usually follows, but For Good will abruptly switch to light comedy. I get the need for some relief in the narrative, but director Jon M. Chu can’t integrate these moments smoothly.

Whereas Wicked acted as pure prequel to The Wizard Of Oz, much of For Good operates on a parallel timeline. This means Dorothy and Toto arrive partway into the tale and we get information about their endeavors.

From afar, that is, as For Good leaves the events of Oz largely in the background. While I like the chance to see this material from an alternate POV, the fact the story needs to adhere to the Oz narrative can also hamstring it in some ways.

This side of For Good simply means it can’t come with the same level of creativity seen in Wicked. Because it needs to trace our already-known events, it can’t go its own way nearly as much as Wicked did.

Boy, all this griping makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy For Good, doesn’t it? That doesn’t prove true, as despite its flaws, the second chapter still becomes a reasonably satisfying conclusion.

My complaints mainly relate to the film’s first half, as its second hour comes together in a more compelling manner. I also like Glinda’s arc.

We don’t see as much of a journey for Elphaba. She does become a harder character than the one in Wicked as a reaction to the manner in which society ostracizes her, but I don’t find much of a change otherwise.

Glinda turns into the more complex role, mainly because the plot makes her complicit in the oppressive society run by the Wizard and true mastermind Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). Whereas Elphaba gets to battle to help the downtrodden, Glinda goes along with those plans.

Granted, the movie makes Glinda a somewhat unwitting collaborator, one driven more from her inability to see the Wizard as the fraud he is. Glinda gets everything she ever wanted and initially can’t get past that.

As the story progresses, though, Glinda’s eyes open and she develops into a more mature and self-realized character. Elphaba’s growth occurs almost entirely in Wicked, but Glinda really changes and turns into a fully-realized person.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise this means Grande delivers the superior performance of the two. Erivo does fine but she can seem slightly disconnected from the part, perhaps because she realized For Good just didn’t ask a lot from her.

Because Glinda encounters such a wide arc, though, Grande gets a meatier part and she makes the most of it. She did terrific work in Wicked as well and she continues her breakout role here.

Because it keeps Glinda and Elphaba apart for so much of the movie, it misses the chemistry between Grande and Erivo. Their bond became a big reason the first film worked so well, and this means the absence of their connection creates a deficit in For Good.

Again, I do like For Good despite these concerns, and some of my issues feel unavoidable given the nature of the project. As mentioned, it needs to echo Oz so much that it just lacks the ability to fly free we saw in the prior film.

Still, if the producers had been willing to let For Good run 100 minutes instead of 137, I think the end result would’ve enjoyed better pacing and packed a stronger punch. As it stands, the movie ends the saga on an enjoyable note but it can’t live up to the highs of its predecessor.

Wicked: For Good appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Given that Wicked and For Good shot simultaneously, their respective Blu-rays enjoyed virtually identical technical qualities. As such, enjoy this lazily cut and pasted summary from my Wicked review!

Sharpness always stayed solid. The movie avoided issues with softness and felt tight and precise.

No signs of jaggies or moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws remained absent.

With a broad palette, the colors of For Good shined. The hues leapt off the screen and looked dynamic, even with sporadic instances of the cliché teal on display.

Blacks came across as dark and rich, while low-light shots displayed appealing clarity. Everything about the presentation excelled.

Downcoverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, For Good’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack didn’t match up with the highs of the image. Still, it used the soundscape well.

Unsurprisingly, music dominated, so both songs and score filled the various channels in a compelling manner. Speech usually stayed centered but the mix occasionally brought some directional dialogue.

For much of the movie, effects acted as a supporting element, but the tale’s action and fantasy components allowed these to kick the track to life when appropriate. The material spanned around the speakers in a broad and seamless manner, with the twister that brought Dorothy to Oz as a highlight.

Audio quality largely satisfied, though I thought a few songs could seem a little lacking in low end. The score showed better range, but a couple of the tunes could’ve brought better bass.

Effects didn’t lack in that regard, as those boasted serious kick. These moments also seemed accurate and portrayed the material well.

Speech remained concise and distinctive. Outside of some oddly bass-shy songs, this turned into a good mix.

As we shift to extras, we get two separate audio commentaries, the first of which comes from director John M. Chu. He delivers a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, cast and performances, score and songs, audio, various effects, production design and costumes, photography, editing and related topics.

That summary reproduces what I wrote about Chu’s discussion of the first film, but that doesn’t mean he regurgitates his statements. While he touches on the same domains, he covers them as they apply to the second film.

Chu seems much more relaxed and engaged during his examination of For Good. Perhaps the success of the first movie lifted weight off his shoulders so he felt free to enjoy himself during this commentary.

Whatever the case, Chu appears significantly more invested through this track. Even with more happy talk than I’d prefer, he gives us plenty of good information and maintains a likable presence along the way.

The movie can be viewed with or without Sing-Along mode. This simply runs lyrics at the bottom of the screen.

Since subtitles already do that, “Sing-Along” feels somewhat pointless to me. Still, it does make the lyrics sparkle a bit and it highlights each word as sung, so I guess it adds a little oomph.

Making Wicked: For Good runs 51 minutes, 29 seconds and brings us notes from Chu, producer Marc Platt, stunt coordinator Jo McLaren, hairstylist Sim Camps, costume designer Paul Tazewell, choreographer Christopher Scott, director of photography Alice Scott, hair and makeup designer Frances Hannon, composer Stephen Schwartz, executive music producer Stephen Oremus, and actors Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Keala Settle, Bowen Yang, Ethan Slater, and Marissa Bode.

"Making" covers story/characters and the continuation of the first film, cast/performances and shooting both flicks simultaneously, hair, makeup and costumes, sets and production design, choreographer and musical numbers, photography, various effects, stunts, new songs, and general thoughts about wrapping the project.

Like the "Making" that came with the prior flick, this one leans toward a bit more happy talk than I'd like. Nonetheless, it gives us a good view of the production and becomes a largely solid overview.

Footnote: during her commentary for the first film, Grande persistently echoed Galinda and called Boq "Bick", and a clip here shows she did so even when she introduced Slater to Yeoh. Commitment to the bit or did Grande actually think the character's name was "Bick"? No idea but I find it hilarious.

With The True Wizard, we find a five-minute, 56-second reel. It involves Chu, Erivo, Grande, Platt, and Bailey.

The featurette digs more into shooting both films at the same time, the long gestation period involved with bringing Wicked to the screen, and Chu's impact on the shoot. It tends to mainly laud Chu but it comes with a smattering of decent details.

More Than Just a Place occupies six minutes, 26 seconds. We find notes from Chu, Erivo, Schwartz, visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman, lead movement artist/Chistery performer Robin Guiver, and production sound mixer Simon Hayes.

We get info about a new song as well as the mo-cap/CG methods used to bring animal characters to life. "Place" works well.

After this we go to The Girl in the Bubble. During this six-minute, six-second reel, we hear from Grande, Chu, Brooks, and Helman.

Expect info about another song created for the movie as well as photography and visual effects of the scene. It delivers another short but useful piece.

Kiamo Ko spans six minutes, eight seconds. It features Erivo, Chu, Grande, and production designer Nathan Crowley.

As expected, this one covers the Kiamo Ko set and connected elements. We get a good take on these domains.

Four Deleted Scenes total five minutes, 51 seconds. Of primary interest, “Glinda Train Tour” offers a musical number that allows the under-used ShenShen and Pfannee a little more screentime

We also get a college flashback with the main roles as well as a look at the creation of yellow bricks and a brief coda for the Wizard. “Tour” probably should’ve made the final cut but the other three would’ve made the movie’s pacing concerns even more noticeable.

With spottier pacing and some tone-related issues, Wicked: For Good impresses less than its predecessor does. Still, it becomes a reasonably solid finale to the narrative. The Blu-ray boasts excellent picture as well as largely strong audio and a collection of supplements. Though it doesn’t live up to the expectations set by the first film, For Good still succeeds.