To me, a great movie feels like a symphony or a Swiss watch, every moment precisely calibrated, building toward a unified crescendo. Remove a single beat and the whole is diminished. Wicked for Good never achieves that coherence. It often feels like episodic TV: crowded with unfinished side plots, anti-climactic beats, and a general sense of narrative drift. Strangely both bloated and hollow, it’s full of unexplained choices and meandering dead ends.

(Spoilers) So many basic questions go unanswered: Why aren’t Dorothy’s shoes ruby? What exactly is the Wizard’s hidden motivation? Why is the Scarecrow absent from the climax? And in a story about good, evil, and the price of truth, why doesn’t Elphaba actually want her truth revealed? “For Good” is a powerful song on its own, but the muddled road leading to and from it dulls its impact.

Fundamentally, Wicked is another film that never should have been split in two. Most of the strongest songs and story beats belong to the first half. I haven’t seen the musical, but as a non-fan, I was genuinely moved to tears in the first film during the school-dance scene, something anyone who struggled at school can relate to. The second part feels emotionally thin, with Glinda surprisingly becoming the more complex, compelling character. Ariana Grande ends up stealing the show, both in acting and vocals.

There are some not-so-subtle nods to our own times, creatures in cages, propaganda, scapegoating—but the real heart of the story is female friendship. Which is why the scene that irritated me most was the bizarre slapping match between the leads immediately after a key character’s death, capped off with a soap-opera-style tellanovella love-triangle reveal. It’s cringe and emotionally flattening. Other low points include awkward de-aged CGI and a climactic “hero reveal” that had the audience laughing, including the little girl beside us who simply said, “Ew.”

Despite all this, I understand why this story means so much to people. The lead performances are excellent, and the sets, costumes, and production design are genuinely impressive. There just isn’t enough material to stretch a three-hour musical into a five-hour film duo without making it feel both rushed and empty. Still, I enjoyed moments throughout, and Erivo and Grande are undeniably perfect casting.If anything endures, it’s the message: always choose the ugly truth over the beautiful lie because truth is beauty, and beauty truth. 6/10