Oz the Great and Powerful

Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
Starring: James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff
Director: Sam Raimi

The 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz has long been a favourite of mine. When I was very young, I remember going down to my Grandmothers retirement village flat and watching it on television with my Mum as the boys were watching football or something on our tv. The colour, the singing, the munchkins, the costumes, how can you not have fallen in love with it? It was, forever after, an all time favourite movie. When my daughter was very little, we watched it together and she fell in love with it as well. I ended up having to buy a second copy of it as she wore the first one out from watching it so much.

When I first heard about this pre-quel by Sam Raimi, I was pretty excited. The trailer was full of colour, fantasy, magic and just enough promise to keep us salivating. Then I heard that Danny Elfman was doing the music and it just topped it off for me.

Well, today the wait was over. We took our daughter to see it as an end of softball season treat.

I didn't love it.

As soon as the music starts over the top of the opening sequence, I was in Danny Elfman heaven. I don't know what it is about Elfman, but he has this bizarre way of transporting you to another world with a minute of music.

However, as soon as the story began, I felt flattened and cheated. James Franco plays the Great and Powerful Oz, the title character. In my opinion, the title character should be strong and engaging, and he just fell short. He is meant to be a con man, a swindler and a cheat, and while he does make you dislike the character, he just doesn't play it strong enough.

There is a small scene at the beginning where he is visited in Kansas at the travelling circus by Annie, played by Michelle Williams. In this scene, Annie tells Oscar that she will marry a man called Tony Gale. Now for those of us who know the Judy Garland movie, I put two and two together and figured she was meant to be Dorothy's mother. They never elude to anymore than this and it was a bit disappointing.

When Oscar gets blown into the land of Oz by one of those pesky twisters that seem to hang around Kansas a lot, he is met by the beautiful Theodora, played by Mila Kunis, who tells him where he has landed and to get out of the water before the water faeries attack. These things were so cute, just with sharp teeth and very cheeky!



 

Theodora believes Oscar to be the great and powerful Wizard of prophecy and immediately takes him to the Emerald City to meet her sister Evanora, played by Rachel Weisz.

Along the way, Oz meets a smart mouthed winged monkey, played by Zack Braff and a little China Doll who has had her whole village destroyed by the wicked witch. Evanora and Theodora send Oz out to kill the wicked witch, who he believes to be Glinda at this stage.

He soon finds out that the sisters in Emerald City have led him astray and Glinda, Michelle Williams again, tells him what has really happened to the land of Oz.

We end up being introduced to three different races that are under Glindas care, the Tinkers, the farmers and the Munchkins who decide to work together to defeat the evil sisters who have overthrown the Emerald City.

The film was visually stunning, apart from the sweeping shots of the Emerald City which were just too fast and ended up being blurry in some places. The colour of the flowers in the field of sunflowers was gorgeous, but I it did look a bit like some of it was borrowed from Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland.

Mila Kunis for me, was the strongest character in this, and I really ended up loving her even though I'm not a fan of Mila Kunis. The costumes and make up were great, but it was hard to admire some things with so much green screen in use.

I really wanted to love this, but ended up just 'liking' it. I wish there had been more explanation of why things were the way they were in the Wizard of Oz and a bit less focus on Oz being a womanising, slimey, con man.

I won't give some parts of the story away as someone gave it away for me a few months ago and spoilt it for me. '

It's colourful, it's cute and some great scenes, but all in all, not as wonderful as I wanted it to be.