"Tell me something about yourself and the country you came from," said the Scarecrow, when she had finished her dinner. So she told him all about Kansas, and how gray everything was there, and how the cyclone had carried her to this queer Land of Oz.
The Scarecrow listened carefully, and said, "I cannot understand why you should wish to leave this beautiful country and go back to the dry, gray place you call Kansas."
"That is because you have no brains" answered the girl. "No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home." ~ The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5
The new Oz movie, Oz the Great and Powerful, is a prequel to Baum's 14 book Oz series in the same way Wicked the Musical is. Instead of Dorothy Gale finding her way to Oz and the Yellow Brick Road, it's the Wizard himself. This is his origin story (because origin stories are currently all the rage in Hollywood).
We start in Kansas (because Kansas and Tokyo Tower have something in common: they're portals to magical worlds), and the city is a mixture of gray. Like the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie we all grew up loving, or, for some sad blokes, grew up hating, the first act of the movie is in black and white. Back when I was a kid I thought it was a brilliant strategy for the film to take advantage of introducing Technicolor in the Oz world, and it was brilliant, but Frank Baum, the original Oz author, actually created Kansas to be that dreadful. It's gray. Gray and boring, and the opening circus scene in the new Oz movie plays out like an old serial melodrama. Everything feels staged, and perhaps it is, because the wizard, James Franco, lives on a stage and craves the attention of an audience.
We're his audience, watching his slimy ways and crooked character, wondering when we can finally be free of the doldrums. But this is his set up, and like the Wizard of Oz movie--this wasn't hinted in the books--some of the characters in the first act find their way figuratively into Oz. We must pay attention.
Finally we're whisked away, floating on clouds, falling into a lake. The colors are vibrant. The scenery creative. The animals feel out of place in a Who Framed Roger Rabbit sort of way. Immediately our antihero meets a beautiful girl (Mila Kunis), the witch Theadora, who is one of three witches in Oz.
Along with the three witches, Theadora, her sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz), and Glinda (Michelle Williams), we are introduced to two more characters: The Flying Monkey, voiced by Zach Braff, and the China Girl, voiced by Joey King. I thought I would be annoyed by both characters respectively, but I ended up being charmed by both. Quickly I started feeling sorry for Finley, the monkey, and I loved the spunk of the China Girl.
The world of Oz is really quite beautiful. A visual splendor of wonder. I didn't see it in 3D, I'll be doing that soon, but Cinema Blend gave the 3D aspect of the movie a perfect 35 out of 35, and I've never seen them give a perfect score before. In that regards I am looking forward to seeing the movie again, and I'm sure the amazing 3D gives modern audiences the same feeling technicolor gave the 1939 audience.
Though there were aspects of the movie that bugged me (I don't care for the portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West, and I wish Edison's technology was emphasized in the first act), this movie still has heart, and I was entertained. Like Narnia, Wonderland, and Neverland, Oz is in my dreams, and seeing it on the big screen, albeit in 2D, was still a delight.
I did enjoy watching the Wizard's origin story, learning how he became the man behind the curtain. The ideas presented are both fitting and interesting. But if I had to choose which prequel I prefer, I'm choosing Wicked.
I'm mixed with how I feel about Oz the Great and Powerful! I had quite the debate with my Mom over what I'd rate the movie, and that I didn't feel it deserved higher then a 3.75, in which my Mom gushed over it and said that the movie deserved no less then a 4. I thought about it, did the math (3.75 = 75% a C. 4 = 80% a B-). That did sound pretty harsh, but still, after several nights sleeping on it, I'm sticking with 3.75. Even with the lower rating, it's still a great family movie that I recommend.
MPAA: Rated PG for sequences of action and scary images, and brief mild language.
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