Oz the Surprisingly Good

Review: Oz the Great and Powerful

Good or Great? It's a common theme in the new film from director Sam Raimi (the Spiderman trilogy). As it is, Oz the Great and Powerful - with its wit, visual delights, and interesting origin story, despite some less than stellar plot and directional decisions - is somewhere in between.

Not that I'm complaining. As you may have picked up on in my review of Jack the Giant Slayer, it is tough to make a good update on age-old stories. So just the fact that Oz, even if not great, turned out to be more than good is a delight in and of itself.

Set up as a prequel to the classic film, The Wizard of Oz, this new film shows how the infamous wizard came to rule over the land of Oz and how The Wicked Witch became so darn wicked.

It is really interesting to see how these characters grow to become who we know them to be, which is the major appeal of prequels. We get to travel with Oscar (Oz) as he grows from con-man to rebel leader to nation ruler. We get to witness the descent of a witch into true wickedness. This is exciting stuff people!

Of course, the biggest danger of prequels is that we already know how the story is going to end (assuming of course, you've seen the original to which the current film serves as a prequel). Because we know certain characters will live, it removes much of the threat from any precarious situation they find themselves in.

That being said, Raimi still manages to create tension in the scenes of action and adventure, which is great for us adult audiences, but at times may delve into "nightmare" territory for little ones.

The Wizard is played by James Franco (127 Hours), with witches brought to life by Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine), Mila Kunis (Black Swan), and Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener). Each of them completely and totally over-acts, which fit exactly with the world they helped to create. If this was an Oscar-nominated it would be ridiculous, but it's not, Oz is essentially a fairy tale in which these performances perfectly epitomize the intended atmosphere (even if Williams was really just re-channeling her inner Marilyn Monroe).

Oz does have its share of problems, primarily suffering from a somewhat convoluted, unfocused script. The whole thing could have been a bit more streamlined, which would let them cut down on the film's over two-hour run-time and clear up some of the ambiguity in the film's second half. As it is, the film becomes unclear as to exactly where it will be going.

But once they get going, Raimi leads us to a more than satisfactory conclusion. The only other grievance I'd claim would be a healthy reminder to filmmakers that CGI is not always better. While the world created in Oz looks great, it was distracting to me that it was decided to use animated, motion-capture technology to display the Wicked Witch. Why? I mean, she looked good enough, but was clearly the product of computer software when she could have more realistically been brought to life with real-life make-up and prosthetics, which I still find to be more realistic when we see characters close up. Another clear example of this over-reliance on animation would be the fake-looking, CGI goblins in last year's The Hobbit.

Anyways, Oz the Great and Powerful is a surprising good time and, even more surprisingly, really really funny, thanks in large part to the flying monkey voiced by Zach Braff (Scrubs). It pays homage to the classic world in which it finds its origins, but stands strong on its own as well. By time time 2013 ends, we likely won't be talking about Oz as we make our Top 10 of the Year lists, but for now it's honestly the best film to come out this year so far.

I'll end with a quote I feel summarizes my feelings about the movie: "The new Oz falls short of the 1939 Oz in charm and innocence, and certainly in songs... But as family entertainment, it's hard to fault such a rapturous spectacle and astute, suspenseful piece of storytelling. A true fantasist, Raimi has conjured up a valentine to the imagination, to smoke and mirrors and to the movies as a magical space where we might envisage, and possibly even realize, our better selves. That's more than good enough" (Tom Charity).

The Final Word: Go buy a ticket.