{"id":2167,"date":"2013-03-12T11:58:36","date_gmt":"2013-03-12T18:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/?p=2167"},"modified":"2013-03-12T11:58:36","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T18:58:36","slug":"oz-the-great-and-powerful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/2013\/03\/12\/oz-the-great-and-powerful\/","title":{"rendered":"Oz the Great and Powerful"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"China<\/a><\/p>\n

Directed by: Sam Raimi
\nStarring: James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff
\nRated: PG for sequences of action and scary images, and brief mild language<\/p>\n

Making what is essentially a prequel to one of the most beloved films of all time is a risky business. \u201cOz, The Great and Powerful\u201d gives us the story of how the titular wizard in \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d got to where he is when Dorothy meets him. It\u2019s not a perfect film by any means, but it has all the magic and charm we can expect from a Disney film.<\/p>\n

Oscar (James Franco) is a sideshow magician in a travelling circus. He\u2019s more than a bit of a ladies\u2019 man, a con artist used to lying and manipulating to get what he wants. When he winds up on the run in his balloon (from an enraged boyfriend of one of his recent conquests), he\u2019s sucked up into a tornado and winds up in Oz. There, he meets Theodora (Mila Kunis), who tells him he\u2019s obviously the wizard spoken of in a prophecy made by the last king, who was poisoned by the Wicked Witch. When he learns that the wizard gets to be king and have vast amounts of gold, Oz is in.<\/p>\n

Of course, it turns out that things are way more complicated than he thought. The Wicked Witch he sets out to kill (Michelle Williams) isn\u2019t who he thinks, Theodora\u2019s sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) is suspicious of his credentials, and the people of Oz are far from the army one really needs to defeat a powerful witch.<\/p>\n

Franco gets off to a somewhat rough start, with the pre-Oz material feeling a bit off kilter. Once the film hits Oz, however, he hits his stride \u2013 and I found myself wondering if maybe the pre-Oz material is intended to feel strained. Regardless, Franco makes his con man character someone we can root for even while he proves over and over that he\u2019s not a very good person. He has a decent heart, but ultimately he subsists on tricks and lies.<\/p>\n

The women all commit to their roles 100%. Kunis and Weisz get to chew a bit of scenery, and Williams\u2019 talent shines even with the fairly simple role she\u2019s given.<\/p>\n

The special effects are impressive, especially those requiring motion capture. China Girl (Joey King) is a small girl made out of china whom Oz rescues early on. She insists on going with him, and it\u2019s almost immediately easy to forget that she\u2019s entirely computer-generated. Apparently the actors were actually on set for all the motion-capture work, and their facial reactions were used by the computer animators. Likewise, Zach Braff\u2019s turn as Finley, a winged monkey who becomes Oz\u2019s lackey, is surprisingly lifelike \u2013 due mostly to the excellent facial expression work.<\/p>\n

The Land of Oz itself is almost a character in its own right, and the effects don\u2019t disappoint here, either. Strange plants and animals, glorious vistas, and the Emerald City are all reimagined in a way that references the Judy Garland film without simply copying it. There are also heaps of little nods to that earlier film, so its fans will likely be pleased.<\/p>\n

This being a Disney film, I probably don\u2019t have to point out that it\u2019s full of unfortunate, old fairytale tropes \u2013 good people are beautiful, evil people are ugly (or get turned ugly by the end); you need a man to lead an army; women with real power are evil; etc. For most viewers, the charm of the film will likely overwhelm any negative reaction to these common issues, but for some they\u2019ll be dealbreakers.<\/p>\n

So, if you want a charming and beautiful film that\u2019s a fairy tale about the man who becomes the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, do not miss \u201cOz the Great and Powerful.\u201d If you\u2019re hoping for a stereotype-smashing, progressive version of Oz (in other words, one faithful to the feminist themes of L. Frank Baum\u2019s books), you should probably stay away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Making what is essentially a prequel to one of the most beloved films of all time is a risky business. \u201cOz, The Great and Powerful\u201d gives us the story of how the titular wizard in \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d got to where he is when Dorothy meets him. It\u2019s not a perfect film by any means, but it has all the magic and charm we can expect from a Disney film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[70,43,89,36],"class_list":["post-2167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-fantasy","tag-good","tag-oz","tag-rated-pg"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/OztheGreatandPowerful.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2oSX4-yX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2169,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167\/revisions\/2169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}