Oz the Great and Powerful

Starring: James Franco, Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, Zach Braff, Bill Cobbs, Joey King, Tony Cox, Bruce Campbell
Directed by: Sam Raimi
Rating: PG
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
2013

Times Seen:
Tim: 2


Summary: A magician (James Franco) gets swept up in a tornado and appears in the land of Oz, where he is mistaken for the Wizard, and tasked with killing an evil witch.

Review:

Tim: Given how much excitement there was about Sam Raimi's film, the big screen return to the land of Oz, I don't think you can call Oz the Great and Powerful anything but a massive disappointment. Sure, it made a lot of money at the box office, but if you're going to do anything even remotely related to The Wizard of Oz, you've got to bring your A-game. This movie brought its C-game. It's such a weak, ridiculous movie- it felt like a completely misguided attempt. I'll give the film some credit for the palate of colors used and some of the special effects, but the movie as a whole is vastly ineffective.

One of the biggest flaws is that the story is just weak and hard to take seriously. I get that the film is designed for a younger audience, but it's so cheesy and poorly scripted that any intelligent adult will likely have some trouble swallowing what this film is trying to feed you. There's no magic in this film at all- that's what made the original film so good- it was magically, fantastical, but believable. You really felt like you were transported to Oz. This feels like a cheap imitation. It has better special effects, but none of the magic.

James Franco was also a horrible choice for Oz. He gives such a cheesy performance, grinning foolishly and looking completely lost. He never makes the movie his own. It felt like the role was beyond his scope of understanding, and he was led by the story, instead of leading it. He looked like he was in over his head. I never believed his performance and never cared about his character. As the lead in the film, that's problematic. His performance was quite disappointing. Michelle Williams was fine as Glinda, but she didn't give us anything special. She seemed far too reserved, which ended up making her seem bland in this film. Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz were great choices on paper, but with a ridiculous script and poor dialogue, but come across as silly. Kunis seemed to be overacting at every turn, and I never believed her for a second in this role. She seemed very weak in this film. Weisz came across a little better, but she didn't seem at her best here, either. Both these actresses left a lot to be desired. I like Zach Braff, but he added very little. Almost all of the characters came across as fairly weak, besides the little China Girl- she was probably my favorite in the film.

The special effects were certainly colorful, and there's some joy to be had in seeing this on screen. Unfortunately, I thought the special effects just came across as cheesy. I loved the colors, but I never believed I was actually looking at something real. It came across as computer generated. The best special effects make you forget you're not looking at something real- in this film, I never forgot that for a second. Rather than being transported to Oz, I was watching a poorly constructed computer generated Oz. It was disappointing.

The story just seemed to be watered down. It was lowest common denominator storytelling. There was nothing particularly exciting or memorable about the plot. It was average.

I've been very hard on Oz the Great and Powerful. It's probably not a terrible movie. However, if you're going to create a film in this world, then you have no other option but to be compared to the classic, The Wizard of Oz. That might not be fair, but that's life. This film never even hints at an ability to hold a candle to that film. I didn't expect this film to surpass that landmark film, but I certainly expected a lot better than we got. This was a movie I was looking forward to, and was horribly disappointed in the final result (have I said that yet?). This film desperately needed to be significantly better. It's a shame this is the film we got.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Wizard of Oz