OZ: The Great and Powerful

Being a fan of director Sam Raimi (Evil Dead Trilogy, Spiderman Trilogy, A Simple Plan), it was easy for me  to have a desire to see this film.  Some people may be concerned because it has the same CGI effects style and producer-backing as seen in Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland, and that film wasn't received super well.  Also, there is the ever-present stigma that comes with films of this type--which is to say that any film "based upon" or even "inspired by" anything that was a literary and/or cinematic classic immediately receives an air of judgment over it's head.  And that preconceived judgement only heightens with the new spin/take/direction a film chooses to have, as this one did.  Furthermore, I don't doubt that people are going to be comparing it to the original MGM film before the book.  Because of the overwhelming box office success and groundbreaking effects the original 1939 film had as an impact, the book, written by L. Frank Baum, will ultimately be undershadowed when people go to see this new film.  But that's just my assumption.  Moving right along...

Oz: The Great and Powerful is set in the two same locations everyone is familiar with from the beloved 1939 film, Kansas and the land of Oz.  It has modest but key references to familiar characters, places and things that everyone knows, but really, it is supposed to be its own thing--it is in fact, a prequel to the story everyone is familiar with.  The wizard of Oz--who was he when he was young?  How did he make it to Oz in the first place and what happens there?  All of this is crafted well into an engaging story that kept me interested and curious throughout the film's 2+ hour duration.  It had me laughing at the right times, feeling an emotional pull at the right times, and cleverly, being fooled as to where the story was going at the right times!

The imagery...beautiful and good enough to lick--since everything looks like candy--but in a non-nauseating way.  Where I was concerned the colors were going to resemble the style I saw in both of the Tim Burton films with the same CGI style--Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice In Wonderland, being so neon compared to a slightly washed-out, pseudo-sepia backdrop where the bright colors were garish and intense, I was pleasantly surprised.  The actors and the backgrounds matched the wild and crazy imagery--the shading was stronger, and the lighting was adequate and while bright, wasn't nearly as sickly looking since no one was overly pale and looked like they'd stepped out of a roaring 20's speakeasy in London and into Candyland.

Years ago, I began to postulate a theory that with each new film, the effect/animation team assigned to work on it is trying to focus/harness a specific aspect in detail and make it superior to the last time they worked on a film.  Each movie where effects are made to be realistic as possible, I try to look for what I think is most likely the detail they're working harder on to perfect.  In this film's case, I determined that it was the realistic effect of light reflection on non-real things.  There is a character in the movie that this effect is used heavily upon, and the work is fantastic.  The way the character moves in relation to light and how things reflect off of it is smooth and looks very real.  I was impressed.

The cast was well chosen too.  James Franco (Freaks and Geeks [TV], Spiderman Trilogy, Pineapple Express), I realize that not everyone likes, but I dunno, he hasn't actually made me frown yet, so I rolled with it and gave him a chance to play young Oz.  He did well, being the right sort of face for the type of womanizing charlatan he portrayed.  He can also properly wear a twisty mustache without looking like it was added to make him look more like Snidely Whiplash or Captain Morgan in a bad way--some actors just don't have the face for it to make it look good.  He did, so bonus for him.  Mila Kunis (Black Swan, That 70's Show [TV], Family Guy [TV]) looks pretty in everything she wears and she pulled off her character, Theodora, quite well and had some impressive range I hadn't seen her do before.  Rachel Weisz (The Mummy, The Fountain, The Constant Gardener) I have always been pleased with and this role was no less the same level of performance I expected from her.  Also, she just seems to charm you with her voice no matter who she plays.  Michelle Williams (Dawson's Creek [TV], Blue Valentine, Brokeback Mountain) plays a younger Glinda the Good  Witch, and has the infallible ability to always look humble in any shot she's filmed in.  Bonus points for looking like the sweetest girl in school while still maintaining a very strong female character.

As a side note, be sure to look out for Bruce Campbell and Zach Braff, who both have memorable roles.

Before I wrap this up, let me also say that for those of you who are Raimi fans, you might be glad to know that his signature film shooting style still holds.  He has this particular love for moving the camera from here to there in scenes of intensity in such a way that I've come to recognize and appreciate as a part of his style to get you in to the movie's more thrilling sequences.  Points in example: the way in which things in the Evil Dead trilogy leap towards the character, or that scene in Spiderman 2 where Doc Oc is unconscious on a gurney and his tentacles start attacking the med staff, just to spout off a few examples.  You'll know what I'm talking about after seeing a certain scene in Oz where the characters are assailed by weird things which you should just see for yourself.

Well, if I haven't bored you to tears yet, or if you simply wanted to do the TL;DR method, let me say this:

Bottom line: Entertaining, funny, interesting, clever, and pretty.  Go see it!