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Let’s get one thing straight,
Disney’s Oz the Great and Powerful comes no where near the 1939 classic we know
and love as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Wizard of Oz movie. Both movies are based on
the Oz book series by author L. Frank Baum yet Disney definitely tried to make
the prequel their own with some similarities that was more as a thoughtful
gesture, a nod if you will, to the 1939 movie.
Starting off in the world of black and white
colored Kansas James Franco is introduced as Oz and comes off as a womanizer
and arrogant circus magician who treats his assistant Frank (Zach Braff) rather
poorly. His only sign of good intentions in the beginning is his ability to let
the love of his life Annie move on because he knows he is not a good man, but
strives to be a great one even without Annie by his side. Put in a rather
sticky situation he escapes in a hot air balloon and is lifted up and into a
tornado where he is nearly impaled by flying objects and finally we see the
shift into the overly saturated world of Oz. It reminded me of Tim Burton’s
Alice in Wonderland and I was surprised Tim Burton wasn’t apart of this film to
begin with.
Tim Burton
is known for his heavy dark themes in his seemingly young adult movies and
director Sam Raimi definitely took Burton’s influence into post-production. The
graphics were simply amazing and proved how remarkable our technology has come
from our first crack at the wonderful land of Oz on film over 70 years ago. You
still see some wonderful touches of sound effects, music, ADR, etc. to really
make this movie come alive in the way that it does. The acting was to me over
the top but I expected it from Disney and it went along with the overly saturated
and odd world that is the Land of Oz.
However, I was surprised how dark
it was and fully loaded with heavy material this movie was for a Disney film.
As much as they try to cover it up with themes of personal faith and good deeds,
I personally did not like some of the material and found it out of character
for a Disney movie to show such violence and terror and certain gender
stereotypes. Such as Oz’s womanizing and greed that leads his to make his
decisions along with Theodora’s (Mila Kunis) stage five-clinger status that
makes women seem desperate for a man and ultimately leads to a horrific change
in her life over a guy.
Oz also doesn’t have his remarkable change in himself until
the end but there is no significant rhyme or reason why he chooses to become
good. For example, throughout his journey he gathers his companions along the
yellow brick road (just as Dorothy) and uses some form of ‘magic’ from his life
in Kansas to help them along the way and there are certain moments you can tell
he has a heart under all that arrogance. But the audience is always reminded
how he does not believe he is the wizard from the prophecy and he’s only doing
this for the gold and doesn’t seem to want to help the innocent folks of Oz at
all. For the most part it just seems James Franco is in the middle of a huge catfight
between Theodora, her sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle
Williams) who’s father once ruled Oz and their fights over love, power and
justice.
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