Oz the Great and Powerful

Title: Oz the Great and Powerful

Director: Sam Raimi

Screenwriters: Mitchell Kapner, David Lindsey-Abaire

Producers: Joe Roth,

Cast: James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams

Popcorn Movies Rating: 7

The Post-Pirate of the Caribbean Version of Oz

By: David Maldonado

Funny, entertaining and is worth catching it in the movies but, it is not as great as many expected.

Kansas, 1905. There is a rolling fair in town and among the attractions is Oz, the great and powerful (James Franco). He is nothing but a charlatan and a fraud that lives of cheating everyone, to take advantage of the woman and the money of the citizens. When he is discovered as the fraud he is, he try to escape on a balloon and is intercepted by a tornado that gets him into the magic Land of Oz. A place with witches, porcelain cities, river fairies and a prophesy that says that one day will come a wizard with the name of the city to set them free of the Evil Witch.

Visually this movie is great. The first act is entirely black and white in a 16mm format that is too small for the big screen. What makes it so great is that director Sam Raimi decides that the location set was going to look just like the original Wizard of Oz (1939), fake. So it feels like if you were looking at a movie produced on the 40’s. Then, as we enter to Oz, the image expands and fit to the screen with the brighter colors. And so the journey begins worthy of an attraction on Disney World.

The computer effects looks as it should look in a movie that cost $200 millions. Very much of the technique used on them make you desire for once seen it on 3D. So I’m safe to say that this movie should be quite an experience in IMAX 3D. Of course, nothing looks real. But that’s the point, is a magic land, the creatures in there are not suppose to look real but magical.

The cast job is very hard to appreciate. Oz is a man that lies for a living, so every time he is in public he acts like if he were on stage. The problem is that Oz is always on public, so he is always trying to hide his true nature. So it is hard to say if James Franco is doing a terrific job or if he is doing his greatest performance yet playing a dude that is playing a dude. The same happens with Rachel Weisz. She is a witch and you can’t tell when she is doing a bad job or if the movie required that she acts like that so everybody can tell when she is faking.

Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis are the ones that bring some serious acting to the screen. Of course their characters are not serious, but at least they act in public like they act in private so you don’t have to think which scenes were good acting because all of them are. Is the same with the voice of Zach Braff (he is the flying monkey), his character stay natural all the time.

The biggest defect of this movie is that runs for 130 minutes and you can feel every minute of it. It is not boring, but either is this epic adventure that is so cool that time flies and you don’t even notice. The reason why this happens maybe is because it last more than it should. It is a good story but, maybe could have tell it in less time and leave the audience wanting more, not thinking “God, this movie is quite long”. So, if the 1939 movie runs 100 minutes with songs in it, this movie was suppose to run the same time without the singing.

The most memorable moment of the movie is when the Evil Witch appears; green, with the big nose, the pointing hat, the black dress and the broom. She has an entrance worthy of post Pirate of the Caribbean’s Disney. On the other side, you may hate the character of Oz, the guy is a jerk.

It’s good to catching this movie just for fun. It is better than Alice in Wonderland of 2010 so if you liked that one, then you might love this one. All is left to say is that Disney already ordered the sequel but Sam Raimi said that he will not be the one behind it.