Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
When Jon M. Chu first announced his big screen evil The adaptation would be split into two parts, and there was concern about whether the second act of the original musical could be made into a full film. Compared to the long first act of the stage show, where all of the musical’s most popular songs are front-loaded, the second act is shorter and moves at a much faster pace while picking up after a significant time jump. It was easy to imagine Wicked: Part Two (Original title) being too confusing and hectic to work as a standalone feature. but Evil: for good It proves that Universal made the right decision by giving this fantasy saga more room to breathe and delve into what makes its characters tick.
Although it would have been understandable if Evil: for good It immediately tried to bring you up to speed on the events of the previous film, but the new film takes you straight back into the story of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande) five years after the two former roommates last met. Thanks to the Wizard’s (Jeff Goldblum) newly appointed press secretary Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), almost everyone in Oz is convinced that there is a deadly evil within Elphaba that makes her a unique threat to the entire country.
Aside from Glinda and her current fiancé Fierro (Jonathan Bailey), it’s easy for people to believe the propaganda of the Wicked Witch of the West because they’ve all seen her cackle at the sky while riding her broom and terrorizing gun-toting soldiers of Oz. But what most Ozians fail to realize is that while Elphaba He has She was busy causing chaos and hiding in the woods like an evil hag, all part of her one-woman crusade to free the country’s population of sentient animals.
Nevertheless Evil: for good Building on the grandiose fairy tale look of its predecessor, it tells a darker, politically charged story of revolution and the power of perception. Elphaba sees herself in animals who were enslaved for being too intelligent for their own good and forced to live a life of slavery. It hurts her to watch them build the yellow brick road she helped envision, but what hurts her deeper is how many animals, like a certain cowardly lion (Colman Domingo), see as just another bipedal Ozian who will bring them nothing but more pain and suffering.
Although many Evil: for good‘s beats are pulled from the theatrical presentation, and it often feels like screenwriters Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox are channeling the prickly energy of Gregory Maguire. evil A narrative to paint an Oz-like picture of the United States in the year 2025. Some of the film’s most powerful moments center on the idea that petty tyrants rely on inciting fear and hatred toward people who are labeled as other. Scenes of human-like soldiers chasing animals from their homes under the pretext of keeping Oz safe immediately conjure images of ICE agents descending on immigrant communities. The Wizard and Morrible’s fanaticism focuses on animals for a while, but it’s not long before the mug begins to take its toll on Munchkinlanders like Boq (Ethan Slater) and Elphaba’s sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode).
Evil: for good He balances the heaviness of his political commentary with a healthy dose of witty humor that comes via his nods to the original Wizard of Ozstory. A Magical Hurricane introduces a new version of Dorothy Gale (Bethany Weaver), but her presence in Oz is often laughed off as characters comment on how the foreign girl always seems to meddle in other people’s affairs. The way Dorothy, her little dog, and their crew of new friends are almost always filmed from behind or just leaving the scenes open is some of the best gags in the film. They serve as hints for how to Wizard of OzThe story ends, but also to remind you of that evil It’s not really about them.
Once again, Erivo is a dramatic and musical force as Elphaba inhabits a more dynamic energy that reflects her embrace of her Wicked Witch identity. But compared to the first movie, Evil: for good She spends much more time with the sophisticated Glinda than Grande, who struggles to figure out just how cursed her newfound fame as the wizard’s favorite “witch” is.
Even when Glinda and Elphaba get into a silly slap fight, Grande and Erivo shine together in a way that’s completely admirable Evil: for good As a delicate love story about two women who changed each other. The film ends with their stories through quintessentially poetic musicals that live and die – and despite being spread across two films, this story never overstays its welcome.
Evil: for good It also stars Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Sharon D. Clarke, Dee Bradley Baker, and Scarlett Spears. The film comes to theaters on November 21.