Oz: The Great and Powerful

This film gets: 9 Lee's 

Oz the Great and Powerful is a 2013 American fantasy adventure film preceding the 1939 film The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. 

Director: Sam Raimi

Running time: 130 minutes

Adapted from: The Wizard of Oz, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Screenplay: Mitchell Kapner, David Lindsay-Abaire

OK, so all this morning I've been singing “You're off to see the Wizard, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. You'll find he is a whiz of a Wiz! If ever a Wiz! Smizz…lizz…”oh” because, because, because….and so on and so forth” - I never can remember that song so well. Anyway, I was in my element, now I’ll have you know that the story of the Wizard of Oz has captured my imagination for years now and even with the newly resurrected and recreated books and musical by, Gregory Maguire, the story still has that spark, that sense of freedom – use your imagination to do and dream whatever you can, be whoever you want to be.

So, I have my cold drink in one hand, phone and smarties in the other. Now for those who know me, this combination means business. The movie starts – I haven’t touched anything, I didn't want to look down at any point to miss one single frame of this film, something strange then starts tickling my brain - but what is is…ooooooh, the movie is in an old original 4:3 aspect ratio and not in the usual full on wide screen that we are so used to nowadays. Not to worry. I know why they did this, soooo I get even more excited… I was like a little boy in a candy store! 

The movie starts with the “wizard”(James Franco) who is this two timing, scheming, conman that has selfish ideals and who doesn't really have a caring bone about anyone other than himself(did I just do that – I did).  Then the tornado happens, like in any Oz film we've now seen or heard of the only way to get to Oz is by tornado, and boy this sequence is done beautifully. At some point something great happens, there’s snow leaping over to the outsides of the now set 4:3 aspect ratio opening up this extended part of what you see in front of you. And BOOM!!! There is the wonderful land of Oz in full 16:9 wide screen in colour, the part of the movie we always want to see, the magical colour! And might I say that the outrageous use of colour and magnitude of the landscapes make this film spectacular. It is not absurdly pushed but you are constantly aware of the colours and vastness, the emerald city, the mountains in the far, the magical poppy fields, the smoke, the yellow brick road, everything is filled with this delight of colour and man is it pretty! I would go live in Oz now. 

The film too does not lack in any way.  The superimposition and use of blue screen technology pushes the envelope even further than ever before, magical characters created from scratch interacting as if they were actually there, and the CG rendering on everything with the lighting and camera angles really makes you believe that the little girl made out of china truly exists.  The story in itself is not one of the original 14 books that was written by L. Frank Baum but I can assure you that this is brilliantly done, with the same style and whimsical'ness combined with the dark evil the creators from Disney sure did one helluva job, and I can only imagine what kind of a job this must have been.  Obviously, and unfortunately  I was aware of some flaws too – the characters Evanora(Rachel Weisz) and Theadora(Milla Kunis) playing the sister duo does lack depth as there would be in two characters like this. For one they both speak in 2 different accents and at stages in the film it felt like Kunis was really trying to put on some sort of a British accent but failed miserably. Glinda played by Michelle “Marilyn Monroe” Williams has now officially joined the party of “wow-actors” she can hang up those Dawson’s Creek shoes and sing the happy song ”Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch! Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead…yada yada yada”. Michelle wow’s us with a character so soft and sweet yet so powerful and iconic it nearly felt like I know here like that, but then you realize that she is truly just a brilliant actor with an amazing future. James Franco as the wizard…hmm, now I did not for one second believe that he was the wizard, but then again neither did any of the other characters – which begs the question was he good or was he acting? But he wins me over in the end and as we all know good always overcomes evil. 

My thoughts on this film: it reminded me of some of my favorite past-times I had growing up. This movie isn't deep, dark or in any way major Transformer- or Alice in Wonderland’like. No, this film is exactly what you would want from one of the biggest grossing book franchises ever, the continuity from one(the wizard of Oz) to the next. If you want to watch a film with a story, heart, courage and imagination then this film is for you. And then, when you are done, go rent the original Wizard of Oz film to keep watching a story that has captured our imaginations for over a hundred years. 
I want to go watch it again!