Oz: The Great and Powerful

Hello, everybody! Sorry I haven’t been posting as often as I had promised. I am the credited screenwriter on two new scripts, so that has been taking up most of my time. I am going to try and get a few more reviews up this week (I have a list of a few animes and TV shows that I have finally completed, and possibly another creepypasta too) and try to make a couple of more adjustments to the site as I go.  If you have any suggestions for anything you want me to review, leave a comment! Alright on to the review:

OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL:

FILM: Oz: The Great and Powerful

Director: Sam Raimi

Year: 2013

Country: United States

Oz: The Great and Powerful is an interesting addition to the classic fantasy film, Victor Fleming’s Wizard of Oz.  While not an exact prequel to the original film, Oz: The Great and Powerful contains plenty of references to the original film (*SPOILER* The Scarecrow is referenced in an interesting way).  The film is actually a prequel to the original L. Frank Baum novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, alike the 1939 adaptation.

Oz: The Great and Powerful follows Oz (James Franco), a simple circus magician, and his adventures throughout the world of Oz.  With the assistance of  Theodora (Mila Kunis), he is able to survive and navigate this strange world.  Traveling along side him is his trustful assistant Frank (Zach Braff), who changes into a flying monkey when in Oz under the moniker Findley.  Along the way they also discover a young girl made of porcelain named China Girl (Joey King) who, despite her size, is a major help to the group.

Alright, now time to pick it apart.  First to state off, I completely agree with the advertisers, there are definitely a number of scenes throughout the film that I would not let children watch (and this is the first film I have actually acknowledge that feeling). Then again, I should have expected that from the mind of Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spiderman, Drag Me To Hell).

First off, I really enjoyed the overall presentation of the film.  The direction was great, the cinematography and special effects were phenomenal (But I will return to those). The film looked absolutely fantastic, just like the wonderful world of Oz should look like. I expected the special effects to be quite a bit over the top, since the special effects artist was none other than Greg Nicatero. Greg Nicatero is well-known for smashing zombies skulls on the AMC hit series The Walking Dead. 

*This screenshot doesn’t do the film justice*

Now my major pet peeve, I hardly enjoyed much of the cast at all in this film.  While I liked James Franco as the con-artist magician in the first act, I did not like him as the “wizard” Oz at all. Zach Braff played in his comfort zone as a comedic supporting role, which I will acknowledge that he did a fantastic job (as the only actor in the film I liked), but it was still much to my disappointment. Abigail Spencer (May, the good witch) in the film, did solid. Oh Mila Kunis, why were you even in this film?  Mila Kunis felt completely out of place in this world as Theodora (a good-natured witch?), and it was only worst once she becomes one of the “wicked witches”. I felt that Oz was being attacked by Jackie Burkhart (That 70s Show character played by Mila Kunis) with magical powers.

Too much cleavage for a wicked witch.

Pros:

-Beautiful presentation

-Somewhat solid supporting cast

-Plenty of references to the original

-Solid script

Cons:

-Disappointing main cast, poor actor choices.

-Some overly violent scenes for a family film

SCORE: 6.9 / 10 Stars

Brandon Stuhr

Who am I? Just some guy who decided to start writing on the Internet years ago and now operates his own brand and site. Owner/Operator of Modern Neon Media, I make all kinds of niche content to suit my interests at the time. DIY Enthusiast, Brewmaster extraordinaire, and avid freak for geek culture. Follow on my socials for a more “on” version of me.