Oz: The Great And Powerful (2013)

*duper overdue. humbug.*

I think I may have been spoiled by Wicked.

Like this one, Wicked is also an unofficial prequel to The Wizard Of Oz, but centred on the Wicked Witch of the West, portraying her as misunderstood and a victim of circumstance, rather than the straightforward villain we're all familiar with. It's an extremely interesting and completely different take on how events unfolded prior to the arrival of Dorothy Gale, with many hints and better foreshadowings connecting both prequel and original story together. It's the musical I'm referring to here (because I haven't gotten around to reading the book yet).

Oz: The Great And Powerful follows the beaten track more closely than Wicked did, and maybe that's why I found it ultimately unimpressionable. It's a gorgeous movie, it looks simply magical, but in some way, and I don't know how else to describe this, it's a bit hollow, also.

I mean, I had gotten more goosebumps seeing Fiyero get carried off into the cornfields (subtlety FTW!) than I did seeing reanimated scarecrows going through poppy fields.

It starts off with Oscar "Oz" Diggs, carnie magician and sweet-talking womaniser, making a getaway from some other angry carnies in a hot air balloon that flies directly into a cyclone. Transitioning from the black-and-white of our world to the contrasting and brilliant Technicolor of Oz, Oz (the human) is heralded as the chosen one who will save Oz from the Wicked Witch. If you've seen the trailer, you'd know who the villain is before you even start this film.

Oz with his magic tricks, inadvertently leads the people to believe that he is a wizard and bungles things up to no end, but redeems himself with 'prestidigitation' (yeah, I had to look it up too) in the final act and drives the villains away.

To me, evil witch or no, Oz (the land) was far better off before having the misfortune of a conman land on their doorstep.

There are some scenes which are quite heartfelt, especially those involving the little China Girl, who is made of porcelain and parallels a quadriplegic girl in our world. Other than that, James Franco grinned too much, Michelle Williams was too bland, Mila Kunis does her best (but the movie was played off as too serious for old version of green), and Rachel Weisz was... weird. She's generally dependable (ahem, The Mummy), but I don't know why she comes off as 'half-there'. It's like, at one point, she's all evil and manipulative, and in another scene, it's sunk into her that she isn't in control as much as she likes and she wants out. And why were there no ruby slippers?! I mean, I appreciate subtlety, but not to the extent that there's almost none of it.

And that part in the end where Oz gives out gifts to everyone? I don't know why, but I found that scene a bit awkward and out-of-place, even though it's in line with canon.

This review is shorter than my other stuffs, because I left the cinema with almost no opinion of this movie, and it was difficult to bang this much out in the first place.