'Oz: The Great and Powerful' is the prequel to 'The Wizard of Oz.' Carnival magician Oscar – known as Oz – gets caught up in a tornado whilst in a hot air balloon. When he escapes the storm, he finds himself in a magical land where he is to be the king as long as he defeats the wicked witch.
The story itself is very loosely based on L. Frank Baum's stories of Oz but the film works well in tying in with its predecessor. The story is very cleverly shows how the magician tricks people into believing he really is a wizard with the use of illusion. There are a lot of nice little references to 'The Wizard of Oz' here but not too many and they are very subtle. One thing I will note however is that CGI Oz is nothing compared to the original setting. There was something magical about the hand-painted flowers and real yellow brick road that really captured people's imaginations, because you knew Judy Garland was really looking at these things instead of standing infront of a big green screen. The CGI is not that impressive here which is surprising, it reminded me of Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland,' which was also largely full of computer graphics and no real settings. The film is very similar to 'Alice in Wonderland' and it seems a bit pointless, did anyone ever wonder about the wizard of Oz? I didn't. There are some scenes where the CGI is quite obvious and cartoon-like, there are scenes where it is really obvious that there is nothing really behind the actors – there are even a few instances where you can see little green lines outlining the actors which make the effects look shockingly cheap.
The acting was fairly well done; Michelle Williams was probably the best in it as she gave a truly brilliant performance as the good witch. James Franco's performance is difficult to judge because at some points he is really funny, very emotive and his character is very believable. However, then there are other moments where he over-performs and it becomes a bit embarrassing because every other actor here take their roles very seriously. The same can be said for Mila Kunis, in the beginning her performance is decent enough but, when her character develops into the wicked witch of the West, her performance goes downhill. Obviously, it is going to be extremely hard to find anyone who can match Margaret Hamilton's performance. Mila Kunis does try her best but it simply doesn't work; she's not scary, not menacing and she's not even laughably bad which is unfortunate.
Overall, this is a fairly decent film; it's really funny, unpredictable and it's not a terrible insult to 'The Wizard of Oz,' but it is very bloated, drawn out and quite anti-climactic. There seems to be a need for kids films to be turned into big-budget ultra-blockbuster films (see Hansel and Gretel, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White and the Huntsman and Jack the Giant Killer), this film is primarily a children's film and it tries to make it entertaining for adults but it simply isn't needed – we all remember loving the Wizard of Oz and we go to see this to be reminded of that experience. It doesn't quite live up to this expectation, it could have been a lot worse but thankfully they have done a good job here.
The story itself is very loosely based on L. Frank Baum's stories of Oz but the film works well in tying in with its predecessor. The story is very cleverly shows how the magician tricks people into believing he really is a wizard with the use of illusion. There are a lot of nice little references to 'The Wizard of Oz' here but not too many and they are very subtle. One thing I will note however is that CGI Oz is nothing compared to the original setting. There was something magical about the hand-painted flowers and real yellow brick road that really captured people's imaginations, because you knew Judy Garland was really looking at these things instead of standing infront of a big green screen. The CGI is not that impressive here which is surprising, it reminded me of Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland,' which was also largely full of computer graphics and no real settings. The film is very similar to 'Alice in Wonderland' and it seems a bit pointless, did anyone ever wonder about the wizard of Oz? I didn't. There are some scenes where the CGI is quite obvious and cartoon-like, there are scenes where it is really obvious that there is nothing really behind the actors – there are even a few instances where you can see little green lines outlining the actors which make the effects look shockingly cheap.
The acting was fairly well done; Michelle Williams was probably the best in it as she gave a truly brilliant performance as the good witch. James Franco's performance is difficult to judge because at some points he is really funny, very emotive and his character is very believable. However, then there are other moments where he over-performs and it becomes a bit embarrassing because every other actor here take their roles very seriously. The same can be said for Mila Kunis, in the beginning her performance is decent enough but, when her character develops into the wicked witch of the West, her performance goes downhill. Obviously, it is going to be extremely hard to find anyone who can match Margaret Hamilton's performance. Mila Kunis does try her best but it simply doesn't work; she's not scary, not menacing and she's not even laughably bad which is unfortunate.
Overall, this is a fairly decent film; it's really funny, unpredictable and it's not a terrible insult to 'The Wizard of Oz,' but it is very bloated, drawn out and quite anti-climactic. There seems to be a need for kids films to be turned into big-budget ultra-blockbuster films (see Hansel and Gretel, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White and the Huntsman and Jack the Giant Killer), this film is primarily a children's film and it tries to make it entertaining for adults but it simply isn't needed – we all remember loving the Wizard of Oz and we go to see this to be reminded of that experience. It doesn't quite live up to this expectation, it could have been a lot worse but thankfully they have done a good job here.