Chris Kavan's Movie Review of Oz the Great and Powerful

Oz Manages to Be Pretty Good, Not Quite Great
Chris Kavan - wrote on 03/10/13

I said before I watched this that I was getting the same kind of vibe that I got from the Alice in Wonderland remake. I have to say, I think my initial assessment was spot on. Oz the Great and Powerful is a visual treat, full of color and amazing effects. It also serves as an adequate setup to the classic Wizard of Oz film. Where the film stumble is that the acting is a mixed bag and the film stretches things out a bit too long. That being said - this is a great choice for a family film with the fantasy and comedy aspect combined and it's not too scary even with flying baboons and wicked witches.

We start off, like the original Oz, in black and white. Our "wizard" James Franco (Oscar - or Oz as he goes by), works as cut rate magician, wowing country bumpkins and wooing naive women. Unfortunately, one of those women happens to be the Strongman's wife - making an escape in a hot air balloon - he gets swallowed by a tornado and, as the color shows up, we are introduced to Oz.

The landscape of this world is amazing - sweeping vistas, waterfalls, amazing flowers and insects and even musical plants greet the bewildered Oz. After a ride in the rapids he is greeted by Mila Kunis - who immediately proclaims him a great wizard and whisks him away towards Emerald City - certain he is the man that will fulfill a prophecy and bring peace back to the land beset by a wicked witch. Theodora, as she calls herself, is also a witch - but Oz knows a good thing and goes about sweeping her off her feet as well. He also happens upon a flying monkey, who he saves from a lion, and earns life debt. Voiced by Zach Braff - he's the comedy relief in the film and has some of the best lines.

In the city he is introduced to another witch, Theodora's elder sister Evanora (a wickedly good Rachel Weisz) - who proclaims herself the "good" witch. She soon sends him off to bring an end to the "wicked" witch inhabiting the dark forest. Along the way he makes a side trip to a destroyed China Town - an army of flying baboons has taken it down and only a single China Girl (voiced by Joey King) remains. She refuses to be sent off and joins the man and his flying monkey on his quest to save Oz. It was nice seeing that this fully CG character was actually brought to life by not just the actress, but a talented puppeteer (Phillip Huber) who truly breathed life into the character and helped with the interaction between the actors.

Of course, nothing is quite as it seems and when a third witch, Glinda (Michelle Williams) enters the picture - the real battle for Oz begins. It turns out Evanora is the true threat and, after corrupting her sister Theodora, Franco finds himself torn between saving his own skin or helping Glinda and her crew of farmers, tinkers and munchkins. It leads to an epic final battle and redeems Oz once and for all. Make sure to watch Franco's video diary to get a bit of insight from both the actors and director on working on the film. It's both fun and provides a bit of behind-the-scenes information.

The film does have a lot of good things going for it. As I said, visually the film is outstanding. Now, I didn't see it in 3D, but I have to imagine it's one of the better offerings to come along. The colors are truly vibrant and the CGI character design is really well done. I especially liked the look of the China Girl and the flying baboons were pretty darn frightening - if anything is going to scar the young, it's going to be those damn, dirty apes. As I learned from the special features - many of the set pieces were built by hand - a wonder in an era of green screens and computer effects. The fact they took this extra step to put the actors more at ease makes one want to thank the filmmakers and maybe give others a hint that just because you can use CGI all the time, sometimes it's not the only thing.

But looks can only get you so far - what about the story? Billed as a prequel to Wizard of Oz, it works fairly well. We get an origin story of the wizard, of course, but also the Wicked Witch of the West - Glinda, the munchkins, flying apes - and the story has some sly references to things like the cowardly lions, scarecrow, the Gale family name - are all there. Also like the original film, people in Oscar's reality bleed over to the magical land. Annie, a woman he obviously has feeling for but couldn't bring himself to proclaim his love, looks exactly like Glinda. His much-berated assistant sounds just like he life-debt flying monkey and a young girl in a wheelchair at his show that asks for him to make her walk again (which he obviously can't) becomes the China Girl - and in Oz he can use the magic of glue to make her whole. There are no ruby slippers, but certain elements from the original film slip by including the Wicked Witches use of fireballs, a cloud-spewing broom and the Oz's final transformation into the "wizard." Kunis has to be singled out for spending hours in makeup putting on various prosthetic applications and getting colored the correct shade of green. It always amazes me just how much time things like that take and that there and the lengths actors will go to bring a good character to life.

While I enjoyed many aspects of the film, two main issues bring it down. One - even though Franco has talent, he just doesn't bring enough emotion into the role to make Oz that compelling of a character. While it's not as bad as his Oscar hosting gig, it falls a bit flat and wooden. I thought all the female leads were good (in my opinion Williams was the standout, with Weisz not far behind) - there wasn't enough spark between them and Franco to get much going. I know this is PG, but there could have been a bit more effort to make a spark. The other big issues was length - at 2 hours and 10 minutes, the film is too long for its own good. While I was never bored, I think they could easily have cut a good 15-20 minutes out and still had just as fine a film.

If you are in the mood for a nice family film with a fantasy aspect, this is a good choice. It does a nice job of putting a new twist on an existing franchise. No one is going to confuse this with the original classic, but it doesn't forget its roots, either. It's a good time - but it may find it hard to stand the test of time.