Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Oz: The Great & Powerful

Synopsis

When Oscar Diggs, a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he's hit the jackpot - fame and fortune are his for the taking - that is until he meets three witches, Theodora, Evanora and Glinda, who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone's been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity - and even a bit of wizardry - Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.

Oz is good . . . but it's not great.

The CG work and world building are awesome. That is an undeniable fact. Some crew somewhere worked tirelessly for hours to create the beautiful world of Oz. I applaud their stunning efforts along with the costumers.

If only the writers had worked as hard. The writing is okay but not blow you away writing. But it isn't by far the worst written film I've seen by a long shot.

I can't say too much about the acting because I think it was in part limited by the writing. Overall the actors do all that they can with what they are given. It's only sad they weren't given more. Solid performances but nothing Oscar worthy for sure.

Fave characters: china doll, monkey (thank you Zach Braff for lending your voice! If you're wondering who that is think Chicken Little and Scrubs), Nuk, the lead tinker and Theodora.

I liked the opening credits (that's odd, right? but they set up the movie stylistically speaking) and the black and white KS contrasted with the world of exploding color in Oz, very reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz in that respect.

Worth a view? Yes!

A word of caution: this has some intense scenes. I took my 8 year old to it, but not my nearly 5 year old. My 8 year old loved it and I'll buy it for her sake because she'll watch it over and over. It'll be a few years before my 5 year old sees it. In my opinion this movie is for older kids not younger ones.

What did you think of this spin on how the wizard became the Wizard?



 

1 comment:

  1. My daughter said she was surprised to see that this movie was done by Disney. She went with her 20 something friends and they all quite enjoyed it. Thanks for the review. All I could get out of Stacie was, "Yeah, you should watch it."

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