WICKED: FOR GOOD

Here's the short version: this is the better of the two WICKED films, and it earns real praise for what it gets right. It's more dramatic, more entertaining, and it lands a moving message about friendship — the kind that changes a person "for good." It also takes a clear, biblical-adjacent stand against tyranny, and, happily, it keeps portraying witchcraft as something that backfires and destroys.

But it isn't a film for children. Two scenes carry implied adultery and fornication, there's a moment of upper male nudity, and both WICKED films carry a political, animal-rights-driven subtext along with what the movie's own cast and fans read as a lesbian undertone — even as the play's composer insists the central friendship is platonic.

If you're an adult who can hold the good and the questionable in mind at once, this is a rich, well-made watch. If you're choosing for your kids, this isn't the family musical night you're looking for.

Elphaba has been branded the Wicked Witch of the West by a Wizard who has turned Oz against her — and against the talking animals she's trying to protect. Glinda, meanwhile, has chosen to stay close to power, hoping to do good from the inside. The Wizard offers both women a partnership, and a gesture of goodwill: freeing animals he's mistreated. But Elphaba soon learns that gesture may not be what it seems, and the choice each woman makes next will decide far more than their friendship.

Four stars, and here's what earns them: this sequel has more jeopardy and drama than Part 1, and it plays as noticeably more entertaining because of it. Most of the acting holds up, and some of the singing is genuinely good.

The songs, though, don't reach the heights of Part 1's best numbers — "Popular," "Dancing Through Life," and "Defying Gravity" simply aren't matched here. And as with the first film, the operatic singing style makes lyrics hard to catch; that was true even for listeners without hearing aids at the screening this review is drawn from. It's a real craft shortfall in an otherwise strong, dramatically satisfying film.

This film believes in friendship, and it says so beautifully. The signature song, "For Good," makes the case that real friendship doesn't just change us for a time — it can change us to actually become good. That's a lovely half-truth: Scripture would add that the deepest, most perfect friendship is fellowship with God through Christ.

The film also takes a firm stand against tyranny, portraying its power-hungry rulers as heartless and deceptive — a warning Scripture itself gives in 1 Samuel 8, where God tells His people that rule by human despotism, unchecked, ends in slavery and ruin. And unlike many fantasy stories, this one keeps witchcraft in a negative light: every one of the heroine's spells backfires, and the story's true villain is the Dean of Sorcery herself.

Set against that is real Romantic, politically correct content — a strong animal-rights theme and a running preoccupation with prejudice — and a subtext the film's own creative team disagrees about: the composer maintains the central friendship is platonic, while others connected to the production and its fandom read it as a romance. Add to this two scenes of implied adultery and fornication, and this is a film with real moral seriousness sitting alongside real moral confusion.

The ache underneath all of it — the hunger for a friend who changes you for good — is real, and Scripture answers it more fully than Oz can: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).

This is a well-made, dramatically stronger sequel with a real and lovely message about friendship — and real content that keeps it firmly out of family territory. Our answer is the same one we opened with: worth the trip — adults only. Looking for something the whole family can watch together instead? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.