Saw it last night, and I wasn't entirely able to appreciate it because, yes, right as the Universal logo appeared, a group of five sat down beside me and began talking loudly to themselves. When I said, "Please don't talk during the movie," they actually responded, "We can talk in a movie! It's loud, anyway" and told me I should move if it bothered me. I got an usher, who made them quiet down, but they still kept talking sotto-voice and making loud noises with their popcorn bags, etc. throughout the whole thing. Oznoxious.
Aaanyway...I actually liked For Good better than Part 1. I mostly preferred the way the numbers were staged in the second half, and unlike apparently nearly everyone in the known universe, I both really liked Goldblum's turn and thought Michelle Yeoh's singing voice was fine for what was required. The movie got to me emotionally in ways the first film didn't, and not because the second half is "darker" (I think this aspect of Wicked is overemphasized: the material ain't Follies). I felt the relationships were given greater depth.
Among my list of nitpicks and complaints: I wish so much of the humor weren't removed. One of the fun things about the second half of Wicked onstage is that the Wizard of Oz events going on moments before a scene begins gives the it a touch of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead that's a lot of fun. Kinda wish the induction of the Yellow Brick Road ceremony wasn't held in Munchkinland, as it winds up making us feel Oz has only three towns: that, Shiz and the Emerald CIty. I wish the movie weren't so padded out. This didn't have to be two hours just to justify being a seperate film. A brisk 90-100 minutes would have been fine. We don't need action sequences of the animals being saved, or the wedding (though juxtaposing Elphaba's moment and Glinda's was, admittedly, clever). Neither new song was needed, and I didn't really enjoy either of them (maybe they'll grow on me?). Why have Fiero basically dressed as himself as the Scarecrow? I get they can't make him look like Ray Bolger for copyright reasons, but couldn't they have made his costume some sort of combination of his guard's uniform and other discarded clothing (I can't remember if he wears the traditional Scarecrow hat)? And his makeup was pretty bad, too. We don't need a flashback to the cast frolicking in the woods in who knows what timeline (hard to believe they reunited in the forrest after "Defying Grativty" considering Nessarose was done with Elphaba the minute their dad dropped dead), or shots of Elphaba and Fiero in the desert wasteland. And why is poor Toto on a leash?
I could say more. There are things I didn't like about either movie that carried over with both, but considering how many dreadful, dreadful stage-to-screen adaptations we've all had to sit through because we love Broadway musicals so much, I don't feel like looking a gift horse-of-a-different-color in the mouth.
I plan to catch it again soon.