I had the amazing opportunity to go see an early release of “Wicked: For Good,” and it exceeded all of my expectations.

The movie provided a great conclusion to the story of “Wicked” and expanded greatly on some elements of Act II from the Broadway show.

Before going into “Wicked: For Good,” I had high expectations due to the quality of the first movie. As a fan of the Broadway musical, I knew that this movie had to pull a bit more weight than the first because Act II of “Wicked” is notoriously rushed and worse than the first.

While there were some pacing issues in this movie that weren’t as prevalent as in the first, I believe Jon M. Chu, the director, worked well with the source material he had. He covered up some pacing issues with grandiose musical numbers and raw, emotional scenes.

The songs

I was pleased to hear some new changes to some of the songs. Elphaba and Glinda both sang reprises of “The Wizard and I” and “What Is This Feeling?” at the beginning of the movie that were tasteful to the situations they were dealing with at the start.

As I expected, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande made Elphaba and Glinda’s songs into their own with new notes and riffs that weren’t distracting and added to the performances. For example, Grande’s rendition of “Thank Goodness” saw some new opt-ups and belts that gave me serious chills.

There were two new songs on the soundtrack: “No Place Like Home” sung by Erivo, and “The Girl in the Bubble” sung by Grande. Before hearing these songs, I was curious to see how these songs would be woven into the storyline. I thought that these songs were added to be an Oscar grab, but they were actually quite poignant.

“No Place Like Home” took place at the beginning of the movie and was Elphaba’s softest song. Typically, Elphaba’s songs are powerful with full vocals and powerful belts, but Erivo sang this song with such grace and softness — the side of Elphaba that Oz doesn’t see.

“The Girl in the Bubble” was one of the last songs in the movie, and was all-encompassing in Glinda’s journey from a popular mean girl into a deep, nuanced person who has to become a leader for all Ozians. Grande gave an impactful performance, but her rendition of “No One Mourns The Wicked” is still my favorite of hers.

Jonathan Bailey and Erivo’s performance of “As Long As You’re Mine” thoroughly surprised me. I am not the biggest fan of Fiyero and Elphaba together, but this performance was so good that the entire theater erupted into applause. This was definitely one of my favorite performances.

However, the absolute best performance of both movies was “No Good Deed.” The transition into this song had me and my friend so floored that we quite literally jumped in our seats. I already loved this song before, but Erivo gave such a powerhouse performance that it quite literally destroyed any other version of this song for me.

I could write an entire article review about this song. I started crying because I was so overwhelmed with how good it was. Erivo’s “Fiyero” riff was so new and so showstopping that the entire theater was in awe. This song will go triple platinum in my house.

Finally, Erivo and Grande’s “For Good” made me bawl my eyes out, respectfully. Their voices melt so smoothly together, and it was a perfect combination of amazing vocals and emotional performance. This song, no matter who you are, will always tear at your heartstrings. It was the second-best performance of this movie behind “No Good Deed.”

Standout performances

I believe that Erivo and Grande both gave Oscar-worthy performances in this movie. They were both nominated for the first movie, but didn’t win.

While Erivo gave a great performance as Elphaba, this movie felt more catered to Glinda and her journey. I think Grande will have a better chance at winning an Oscar for this performance than she did the first time, because her performance is so incredibly layered.

Bailey was not as present in this movie as the first, but he still did well nonetheless. I think the standout actor was definitely Ethan Slater, who plays Boq. Slater surprisingly stole the show in every scene he was in, and I believe he deserves some more recognition.

Jeff Goldblum, who plays the Wizard, was alright. You can definitely tell he was cast because he’s Goldblum. His performance is not any different than how he acts in real life, but it still works.

Marissa Bode, who plays Nessarose, did a great job at making me absolutely despise her character. She was perfectly annoying and enraging in every scene she was in, so she was doing something right.

Sadly, the weakest performance in this movie was Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible. She was quite literally horrible. I respect Yeoh as an actress, but she does not belong in “Wicked” whatsoever. She cannot sing, she is not intimidating and she weakens every scene she is in. I know she was only cast because Chu begged her to be in it, but I still feel like it should’ve been Sheryl Lee Ralph.

Final thoughts

This movie was very good, but not as good as the first. There was a lot of time spent in the first “Wicked” movie fleshing out all of the characters, and we did not get that as much in this one.

This movie was also a lot darker than the first, which is not really surprising to me.

The storyline of “Wicked: For Good” takes place at the same time as “The Wizard of Oz,” and as a big fan of that movie, I was disappointed with how they rushed every scene that Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow were in. I was so excited to hear Colman Domingo voice the Cowardly Lion, and he quite literally had two lines.

I also wish this movie had spent more time on Elphaba’s journey and inner battles.

I will commend Chu for not changing the original ending of “Wicked.” It was actually way more gutwrenching than the Broadway version. He did change one thing that I did suspect, which I thought was done tastefully.

Overall, as a big fan of “Wicked,” I thought this movie was beautiful, emotional and showstopping. The songs in Act II are not as strong as the songs in Act I, but “Wicked: For Good” delivered on all aspects besides pacing — truly changing me for good.