It isn’t uncommon for musicals to have weaker second acts than firsts. The first act is spent establishing the story, the characters, and the stakes. During that time, you have to draw the audience in and get them engaged. So, you usually want to load a bunch of fun moments and songs into that first half to grab the audience’s attention. Wicked is no exception to this, with both the first half of the play and the first movie being absolutely full of beautiful moments and amazing songs. It’s widely known that the back half of the play, on the other hand, is a bit rushed, poorly paced, and has much weaker music. If you were hoping that Wicked: For Good was going to somehow overcome these problems with its source material, I’m afraid I have some bad news.

Picking up some time after the events of the first movie, the story now sees Glinda (Ariana Grande) taking on a bigger role as a public figure in Oz. She’s positioned as the “good” opposite of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), now known as the Wicked Witch of the West. Elphaba is working to free the talking animals of Oz and convince the people that the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) is a fraud.

It’s difficult to judge the story, which I will admit is interesting in concept at least, because frankly we spend so little time with any of it. The pacing in the movie is breakneck, with major events unfolding back-to-back and given no time to linger. At one point a major character switches sides, starts a new relationship, commits treason, gets tortured, and then is transformed all in the span of what seems like 15 minutes. Neither the story beats nor the characters are given any time to breathe, and as a result it all feels like a big, jumbled mess.

The defense of the terrible pacing will be that, of course, that’s how it’s done in the play too. It’s understandable to stay as true to the source as possible. That’s what fans want. Yet, it feels like there was an opportunity here to expand on the original and correct some issues. There are a few song reprises that could have been cut to make time for deeper story moments. There are also a few characters, namely Dorothy (Bethany Weaver) and her crew that desperately needed at least a little more screentime. Again, I understand that they aren’t seen much or at all in the play, but that doesn’t make their usage in the movie any less awful.

On the plus side, Erivo and Grande remain completely phenomenal. Both actresses were perfectly cast and deliver performances that have to be seen to be believed. Grande in particular proves herself more than capable of handling anything the film can throw at her. She almost manages to save the whole thing through sheer will and talent.

The music is also fairly good. As I said, there are perhaps a few too many reprises of earlier songs, but nothing that drags the film down. Unfortunately, all the songs are is “good”. There’s nothing that compares to the best songs from the first movie. Not even close. Generally, when people talk about the music of Wicked, they talk about the earlier songs. Wicked: For Good is not likely to change that.

For all the issues with pacing and the weaker music, however, this sequel still manages to find some footing. Mostly it can thank its stars for that, but it’ll take what it can get. Fans will already know what to expect, the adaptation is faithful for better or worse. Newcomers will still have some catchy music, beautiful visuals, and wonderful performances to enjoy. It’s not the ending that the first Wicked deserves, but it could have been worse. Maybe it should have been called Wicked: For Good Enough.