'For Good' embraces wickedness

At last, “Wicked: For Good” reveals the mechanics behind Glinda’s bubble.

- AMY NICHOLSON FILM CRITIC

ARIANA GRANDE, left, and Cynthia Erivo are the stars of "Wicked: For Good."

It’s not magic. It’s technological wizardry engineered by the man behind the curtain himself to convince the Munchkins that Glinda, charismatic but haplessly unskilled, has supernatural talents. To use the parlance of his press secretary, the gimmick is merely a “vehicular spherical globe.”

“The wand really sells it,” says conniving Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). Likewise, after 2024’s narratively dreary “Wicked,” returning director Jon M. Chu persuades us to come back to Oz for this smarter, sprightlier followup that’s all about the pageantry of propaganda.

In this Oz, image is everything, and the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) is the spin-master. “Once folks buy into your blarney, it’s the thing they'll most hold on to,” he croons in a playfully retro ditty whose balloon dance and squawking horns allude to Charlie Chaplin in “The Great Dictator” and “Cabaret’s” Joel Grey (who coincidentally played the Wizard on Broadway).

The script by Dana Fox and original Broadway play-wright Winnie Holzman follows the structure of the 2003 stage musical, itself an adaptation of Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West." Consider the break between films a yearlong intermission between acts. The first installment was all tedious setup. The second has a body count.

To briefly recap the first "Wicked," Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the future Wicked Witch, were once college roommates. Glinda charming and popular; Elphaba, a green-skinned outcast with paranormal powers, is embraced only by her moony sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode), the impulsive Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) and, gradually, the perky, pink-clad Glinda.