One year later, and we are back in the Land of Oz with our two beloved protagonists, Alphaba and Glinda, played by Cynthia Rivo and Ariana Grande.

To conclude the story of friendship gone astray, It's Wicked for Good.

I'm Ronald Young Junior, and I'm leaving the theater.

All right.

This is Ronald, and I'm leaving the theater after seeing Wicked for Good.

Wicked for Good written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, directed by John M.

Chu starring Cynthia Rivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Daily, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Body, Coleman Domingo, Michelle Yo, and Jeff Goldbloom.

And for a complete cast listing, you could go to the link in our show notes.

It is just me today.

Wicked for Good is the sequel to twenty twenty four's Wicked, which came out last November.

And it got one oscar.

It actually got one of the words oscars.

It got achievement in popular cinema, basically the a you did real good in the box office oscar, which is not an oscar.

Most serious movies want to be receiving.

It's like, oh, so it got that Oscar.

So I don't want anyone that is in a time machine listening to leaving a theater coming back at me and like, well it was an Oscar winner, and it's like, yeah, that's barely an Oscar.

No one counts.

It's it's just different.

If you listen to the original review of Wicked, I believe in that episode I tell you the whole story about how I came to know Wicked, how I came to interact with it, how I almost read a book that I did not read as a child, et cetera, et cetera.

Since I have seen Wicked, I have gone to Broadway and seen the Broadway Musical parts one, I mean the entire Broadway musical, and now I have seen both movies, the first and the second.

I thought the first one was pretty good.

I don't remember what my rating was.

It was probably somewhere around a three three and a half.

If it's lower than that, I'd be surprised, But yeah, it's somewhere probably around hovering around a three.

I don't think it was quite a four or maybe this is being taketed by this movie.

This is the sequel, though we're following Alphaba and Glinda and the Wizard and Madam whatever her name is, and on their adventures in Oz.

I'm gonna do something a little different today.

I'm gonna talk.

I'm gonna say I'm going to talk about the movie and the construction of the movie and the acting, and then I'm going to talk about the story.

Visually, stunning, great costumes, good acting from as far as I could see, from Cynthia Arrivo, Jeff Goldbloom, Ariana Grande, it was fine acting from them.

Set design is good.

The monkeys like flying monkeys.

Everything those boxes are checked.

The direction is fine.

I feel like the actors all clocked in and did what they were asked to do, what they believed in doing.

And the script is fine.

Because the truth is last year when I went to go see Wicked the musical, I went to go see it with my friends Meredith and Will, and I remember leaving and being excited.

I was excited to be in New York.

I was excited to see the musical.

I was excited to have seen the musical, to be a part of it, all of that.

But I remember leaving and being like, man, that is really dumb.

The storyline is really stupid.

It is a stupid story, and I'm sure there's a lot of people that are like, well, Wick, it's a classic, Oh my god, I've seen it, and there's good songs in the second one.

All of that.

No song in this second movie is as good as the movie.

The songs in the first half of the musicals.

So I'm gonna say first half and first movie.

Just know that I'm using those interchangeably, because the first half of the Broadway production is the first film.

So all of the songs in the first act now I'm throwing in another word, just a CONFUSI y'all, all of the songs in the first movie are most of them are good songs.

The second one, for good, is a good song.

Other than that, I couldn't tell you a song that was in the second movie.

It's kind of how I feel about In the Heights, where outside of In the Heights, I couldn't tell you a song from that movie.

And the and again, I think the plot is written in between a fixed point, so Wicked does not look to change any of the original story of the Wizard of Oz.

It only seeks to give backstory, and the backstory is subversive about the characters we've known.

For whatever reason, someone came along and said, I'm gonna write a different backstory.

That's where the original novel Wicked comes from.

For me, it was difficult to sit here and watch this movie in twenty twenty five when it is a film about the government overtly lying to the people, and a black woman, a black woman who has been falsely accused and essentially deemed a terrorist, is now fighting against that.

She's fighting against that oppression, and in fighting against that oppression, she's discovering that she has no allies and that all of the people who know her and understand where she's coming from have all decided JK.

I'm just gonna, you know, keep my head down and keep working for the oppressive government, which makes it for a strange film as it continues, because I don't understand the relationship between Glinda and Alphaba, how it evolves the way it does, why Alphaba would feel fierce loyalty to Glinda except for that they went to college together.

I don't understand the motivation behind the wizard hating animals.

I really don't.

I don't know if I miss something, And it's really frustrating because I'm sure it's important to understand why he wants to kill or exile all the animals, kill, capture or exile all the animals, and doesn't want I'm talking, and why they need a bad person.

It's very, very confusing the motivation of these characters.

At some point, I'm looking at Madam what's her name played by Michelle Yeo who cannot sing.

She cannot sing.

They should not have her singing one line.

It was bad.

I remember, I'm like, wow, how are you flat?

And like, stop doing you got to go to some lessons.

You only had to sing like two lines, and they both sounded awful, and they put that in the final movie.

And I love Michelle Yo, but I hate her in this film.

And maybe that's the characterization.

But I also was like, but the writing is also stupid because everyone just keeps they keep harping on the fact that the Witch is evil, she's wicked.

Oh my goodness, she's wicked.

But there's no real motivation.

They're not like getting a bunch of gold from Oz and reveling in their wealth.

It just feels like they're doing all of this to protect the Wizard from being denounced as a fraud, which I don't know that him being denounced as a fraud is that bad, you know what I mean?

Like, I don't think that the consequences for that are They're just gonna run you out of town.

Man, You're just gonna end up going back to Kansas or wherever you're from.

You know, it's very If you think too much about this plot, it's not enjoyable.

And honestly, because they made a whole movie about the second half of the musical, it's easy to be like, oh, man, yeah, this bad.

This don't make no sense, and it doesn't.

It doesn't, and also I don't In twenty twenty five, after being forced to have watched The Running Man and the Long Walk, it's a really frustrating film because it requires me to tolerate foolishness from characters that you should know better.

I feel like the way we tell stories should be changing.

Now.

We have to start talking about why folks embrace lies and what's comforting about the lies.

If multiple characters in the movie embracing lies, I need you to dig into why.

But of course it's not going to do that because this musical was written twenty five years ago, and I guess the only purpose in me saying that is nothing's changed in twenty five years.

The lies have gotten more overt.

So if you're gonna make a movie like this at twenty twenty five about government oppression and a fraud of a wizard, it seems like you could say it with your chest, but you're not gonna do that because you got a full budget.

You have a full budget, and it's gonna be everywhere and you have to dance around it a bit, which makes the whole movie just feel even dumber.

So it was dumb when it was written, and now it's even dumber for me to watch today because now I gotta watch y'all play in my face about oppression, and I just I just shouldn't have to do that.

We're watching a bunch of folks be complicit in the government propaganda machine, and that's exhausting.

That's an exhausting plot.

I think it's truly a terrible story.

And also Neessa Rose really sucks.

The Wicked Witch of the East, which is Alphaba Cynthia Rivo, her sister in the film, she sucks.

So if you're gonna make these people black again, as I always say, I need to be informed as to what race means in the universe that I'm seeing it in now.

I will say Alphaba being black does make sense in terms of how she's interacting with the government immediately.

That makes sense.

Neessa Rose makes less sense.

I don't know.

Maybe her being more visibly biracial or lighter skinned could play into it, but I don't think that that's something that's sought intentionally, if you will so, I don't.

Yeah, I don't know.

There's several instances in which I realized that Alphaba is just bad at spells.

I eat, like the spells she's reciting are they're kind of like those cursed jokes where you make a wish from a genie and it's like it's like I wish I was I wish I was super rich, and you're super rich, but like you're also an idiot or something like, I don't know, you know what I mean.

It's like they never worked the way that they should.

I enjoy that.

I just I really didn't enjoy it.

I think I think it's a dumb story.

I think Wicked is a dumb story, and I think this closes the book on Wicked, as I hope this is it.

I hope they don't remake this.

I hope they don't shoot it to Broadway.

I hope like there's no gritty revisiting of it, just like, let's just be done with it.

Let's let this be over.

I'm gonna be a fair critic and I'm gonna give it three out of five stars, because to score it any lower would mean that I was penalizing it for something that was done again twenty five years ago.

So maybe, and maybe I would be benefiting from being burdened by nostalgia, because all the folks who like Wicked, who listen to this are going to be arguing with me for some reason.

But again, I'm not burdened by nostalgia.

And I could just tell you this isn't a good story.

Tho's connections that are really stupid.

I just I didn't like it.

But to score it lower would be a commentary on the story itself and not on the movie that I just watched.

And I think it's a three star movie.

I think people are gonna want to watch it again.

I think people are gonna enjoy it.

I will say it's not as good as the first one.

There's ways in which someone could have just showed me the first one and told me what happened in the second one.

Or if this was a bedtime story and I was a child, I'd watch the first one and be like, Okay, good night, I don't and wake up the next day and be like, hey, why don't you run that first one back?

Don't you don't need to run that second one.

I'm good.

I don't need to know what happens to them after this.

If you just said that Elfhabe flew off and fought for the liberty of Oz, and Glinda lived in conflict the rest of her life, and that's how the rest of this story goes, I'm fine, fine, I don't need to know what happened to Dorothy and the Lion and the origin of the Iron Iron Giant Man, the Iron Man, the ten Man, the ten Man, the ten Iron Giant Man, Iron Man.

I don't need to know the origin of him or the Scarecrow.

It's not important to me.

So three of five stars and with that leaving the theater is a production of Oh It's Big Ron Studios.

I mixed this episode and you should be getting this episode on time unless you're in Patreon when you are getting it on Sunday.

Everyone else should be getting this on Monday, as actually planned because for once I am not traveling, I am mostly free from obligation.

I have nowhere to be.

I feel pretty good.

It takes a lot to do this show, and I have a lot of plans in the future.

I'm actually thinking about combining the patreons of Leaving the Theater and Wait for It.

I'm thinking about revisiting going back to Owits Big Ron Studios as a Patreon itself, because I want to keep moving forward career wise, and a lot of my work is intersecting in a way that makes it useful to be listener supported, useful to be working with folks that like the content.

And I know there's leaving the theater, folks that listen to other Owis Big Ron Studios shows and they appreciate those as well.

And I feel like, why not just put everybody in one basket where the money that you're contributing that's helping with Leaving the Theater is also helping with Wait for It's also helping with the next few projects that I have planned, like thinking about I don't like that or on the couch all of the things that are coming through Patreon and things that will come outside of Patreon as well.

This could be the engine that powers all of them.

This is all the type of thinking that I'm doing right now, and it's tough to do all of that while also manage an always on review show, plan the schedule, and keep all of it moving forward.

It's a labor of love, but it is labor.

Nothing's changing right now, So anyone that's in the Patreon, as a matter of fact, you won't even hear this because I cut this for Patreon members.

But for anyone thinking about joining the Patreon, go ahead and join it.

But there may be a change in the future that means that the money that you're contributing goes even further, which I think is good.

So while you're contemplating, if you're thinking about it, this means anything.

So if any of that means anything to you, if my labor means anything to you, this labor of love, but it is labor that means anything to you, go to patreon dot com, slash leave in the theater, or go to the link in our show notes.

Show art from Heather Wilder.

Theme music by the Mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder.

For more information about Wicked for Good, check out our show notes.

You can follow me on Instagram, Blue Sky, TikTok, Threads, or letterboxed at Owitz Big Round.

That's at h I T S b I g R o N.

You found up more about this show and other oh It's Big Round Studio shows by following us on Instagram at OIZ Big Round Studios.

Leaving the theater will be back soon.

Thanks for listening.

Ronald Young Junior and I'm the Iron Iron Giant Man, the Iron Man, the ten Man, the ten Man, the ten Iron Giant Man, Iron Man