The Wizard of Oz is one of those movies that is close to a lot of people's hearts and so to take on anything in that realm for a movie is a definite tough undertaking, especially if another movie studio holds the rights to the Wizard of Oz and such so they can not touch certain aspects of Oz and the storyline. Oz the Great and Powerful is an attempt to tell us the origin of the Wizard and how he came to being the Wizard of Oz, as well as the relationships and interactions he had with the various witches of Oz. This is the prequel story to Frank L. Baum's series of children's books and this world created by Baum plays greatly into Raimi's strengths as a director. An imaginative world that is covered in light and darkness with characters that inhabit the world with a quirky feel that harkens back for everyone to their own childhood imagination.
While normally talking about the main character is the first actor in their role I talk about, I am going to switch it up a little. Rachel Weisz in the role of Evadora, basically made the movie for me. She gives a performance that in many respects not only saves the movie, but she is actually one of the huge reasons I enjoyed the movie so much. She manages to make the role of Evanora more than the standard fairy tale villain, from her we get a complete character from a not so strong script. Countering Weisz is Michelle Williams as Glinda the Good and she fits the role perfectly. She gives off what I would say is the perfect amount of goodness and sweetness without that overly fake sweetness that so easily could have come out. On to our main character of Oscar Diggs (Oz) played by James Franco. While I have really liked Franco in a lot of his roles, for some reason I felt he was just okay. While the con man part he did play well, I fel there was something missing from his performance. While I wanted good to win out I felt like the audience was not given the view into seeing the good that Glinda saw in Oscar. Along, with the character of Oz, I was even more disappointed in Mila Kunis as Theodora. While her character early on seemed to work well for her the transformation she goes through in her desicion making felt forced and too instantaneous. By the instantaneous change we do not really understand why she decided to change. I think a slower transition over a little time would have worked so much better. The supporting cast give good performances and I really enjoyed the comedic/light moments Zach Braff brings with his voice for the character of Finley a talking monkey, who brings great one liners throughout.
While I felt like the script was simplistic and a little weak, the direction from Sam Raimi made up for the weak aspects of the story. While this is a prequel to a story that many people already know, which means there are not really many surprises to me that is no excuse for being lazy with the script. Raimi though takes this lack of script and put everything he has into the movie. Raimi creates a visually stunning word that simple wowed me in its rendered details that feels fresh and original. Seeing this movie in the IMAX 3D only made the visual that much more stunning and awe inspiring. I am still a huge fan of the 3D because of how for me it just seems to make me feel like I am fully immersed in the world that the director has painted on screen. The musical score Danny Elfman brought to Oz the Great and Powerful worked so well with everything that was happening on screen. It really helped to lightly bring the fantasy world to life without overpowering the visuals, but instead it complimented the visuals perfectly.
The action sequences although not the sequences one would see in an action packed movie, the few that they had in Oz the Great and Powerful seemed to work fairly well. There are two aspects that I completely loved in the movie. The first is the first part of the climax of the movie where the plan of Oz comes to fruition. I won't give it away, but I felt it was so well though out and worked so well. The second sequence is the witches duel between Evanora and Glinda. This sequence is the moment where Weisz and Williams solidified even more that they were the true stars and carried the movie. For me the witches duel surpassed the final duel in the Harry Potter series. I was a fan of how they paid homage to The Wizard of Oz in many different ways when they did not own the rights to the original film, so they ended up paying homage without infringing on those rights. From the use of a yellow brick road, poisonous poppy fields, to a pasture with multi-colored horses and even singing munchkins all paid homage well to the original. However, one of my favorite homages was that of the flying babboons which I felt like they were a pretty cool update on the original. The baboons were terrifying and what you would truly expect the henchmonkelys of a wicked witch to be exactly like. The CGI that was used was seamless and I love it when even though I know it is CGI, it is not so cheaply done that it comes across completely hokey.
Oz the Great and Powerful while the script was lackluster there were some saving graces that truly made this a really strong movie. The performances by Weisz and Williams stole the movie and without either of them this movie may have been a definite lackluster movie. The direction by Sam Raimi showed his style and touch greatly and it really in the end had an amazing visual feel, that gelled with a lot of the other aspects of the movie. Of course had Oz the Great and Powerful had a strong script and cast possib;y two characters a little differently, it really makes me wonder how much better it may ave been in the end of if that would have effected the performances that Weisz and Williams gave. I am giving Oz the Great and Powerful three and three quarter buckets of popcorn out of five. This is a movie that any fan of IMAX 3D should definitely go see because of the visual experience you will have in the theater. Even the casual movie goer should spend the money to see it in the theater.
-The Movie Man
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