Oz the Great and Powerful Review (2013)
Category: Family / Adventure
Actors: James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Zach Braff
Duration: 131 min
Rated: PG
You might like this movie if you enjoyed:
Return to Oz (1985), Alice in Wonderland (2009), The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)
The story in one sentence: An arrogant circus magician finds himself in an enchanted world and has to prove that he is more than just a charlatan.
Storyline: Oscar Diggs (James Franco) – also known as Oz – is an arrogant circus magician with very little success who is playing with every woman he comes across. When one of the circus artists finds out that he gave a music box to his wife – one of his tricks to get into a woman’s “heart” – he chases him through the entire area. Oz jumps into a balloon and cuts the robe lose only to get sucked into a bad twister. Scared for his life he gets swept away and wakes up in an enchanted, colorful world like he has never seen before. He meets Theodora (Mila Kunis), a witch that explains that he is in Oz. When he tells her that his name is Oz as well, she assumes that he is the wizard everyone is looking for to free the people of Oz from the wicked witch. After he hears that whoever kills the witch has a lot of gold waiting for him he confirms that he is the one everyone is waiting for. He makes Theodora fall in love with him by giving her another music box claiming that it was a gift from his grandmother. Theodora’s sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) seems sceptical and questions Oz’s true intentions. On his way to find and kill the wicked witch he makes friends with a monkey and a porcelain doll. But when he faces Glinda (Michelle Williams), the witch who everyone claims to be wicked he notices that she looks exactly like one of his former romances. Is Glinda the wicked witch? Is someone playing a game with him? How will Theodora react when she figures out that he might have feelings for Glinda? And how is a fake magician going to fight against a powerful witch?
Review: Oz the Great and Powerful is a very cute tale of how the wizard of Oz actually came to life. Many critics think that having a male lead character for an Oz-tale is a major step back for witches and women, but I strongly disagree. Yes, the major focus should be – as the title hints – on the wizard, but fact is there are three powerful women who the movie couldn’t live without. The witches left a much bigger impression in my oppinion than the wizard. But what is this movie really about? Is it about who is more important in out society, men or women? No, obviously certain critics are too busy being bitter and recentful. The movie shows that you need to believe in yourself first in order to help others. You need to love yourself first before you love others. And most importantly never give up. So I give a big fat DUH to all of you who are trying to outrage the women in this world for being neglected in this movie, because you are very wrong. But that’s just how I feel.
The movie delivers probably the most stunning cinematography I have seen this year and the transition from the black and white treatment into color is almost breath taking. I fell in love with the images and creatures of Oz. All the actors give a nice performance with what they are given, and here is where I have to take points off: What the actors were given is a thin storyline. The dialogues were not bad, flat or frustrating in any way but I missed the magic. I remember I watched Return to Oz many many years ago and was totally intrigued by it but I didn’t get that from this movie, espeilally at the beginning which seemed very long. However, I have to admit that the amazing graphics almost made me forgot about my disappointment. Plus the monkey was hilarious!
Oz the Great and Powerful is an enchanting and colorful family movie with a few flaws here and there, but still very enjoyable.
My rating: 6.5/10
Images sourced from: http://www.imdb.com
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It’s interesting that you comment on the women being over shadowed, I didn’t even think of that! my main issue with the movie was I didnt know what was going on with all the twists and turns, but I am not that familiar with the wizard of oz story.. maybe it would have been easier to watch if I knew the story better.
I think this is the prequel to the musical Wicked and I am sure they will release it as a movie pretty soon. I don’t think it would hurt to watch the other Oz movies, but since this should be the part that explains how everything happened, I don’t think you have to. They just made it hard to follow sometimes.