Oz the Great and Powerful **** (2013, James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, Mila Kunis) – Movie Review

An astounding looking movie from its 1930s-style movie titles and black and white, narrow-screen start to its glorious widescreen, colour images in the land of Oz , this is an utterly ravishing and beguiling extravaganza. It’s a visual assault on the eyeballs that continually gets you saying ‘how did they do it?’ and ‘how could they afford it?’

Amazing sets, costumes, photography and CGI, these will all have to be properly honoured at next year’s Oscars. So, there’s no doubt about the technical triumph. It’s the best Disney’s $200million can buy, brilliantly deployed by surprise director Sam (Evil Dead) Raimi.

And how good is James Franco?  Killer smile, cheesy grin and fine comedy skills firmly to the fore, Franco is a total charismatic delight as Oscar Diggs, the circus conjurer showman, who gets chased out of Kansas in 1905, making his escape in a hot-air balloon, only to be afflicted by a tornado, but landing up in the land of Oz, where he’s hailed as the wizard who’s going to save the sweet folks there from the wicked witch sisters and their evil flying monkeys (oooh, scary!).

Then Michelle Williams does extremely well in the always pretty vapid role of Glinda the good witch, who knows Franco’s not the real deal wizard-wise, but detects he has a well-hidden inner goodness that can save them all. Mila Kunis (Theodora, Wicked Witch of the West) and Rachel Weisz (Evanora) have a field day in trying to upstage each other as Oz’s resident Queen of Mean.

Though, even so, much more outrageous camping around would be better. They never etch themselves into movie history like Margaret Hamilton (Wicked Witch of the West) did in The Wizard of Oz. This is a big, fat lip-smacking moment all actors dream of, why not grab it?

It’s unfortunate that the long running time of two hours ten minutes does the film the disservice of exposing the slightness of the corny, old-fashioned story, based on L Frank Baum’s revered originals. It makes the Dolby 3D glasses seem to weigh heavy on the nose and your bottom shift restlessly on your seat.

There are several talky scenes around an hour or so into the movie where you want to shout ‘Get on with it!’ Raimi is maybe too besotted with the material, and needed to get the cutting scissors out. Twenty minutes shorter would be loads better, especially for the impatient kids who are the target audience.

Talking of which, who is the audience? Old-movie buffs? Will today’s too-savvy kids go for it? Maybe they will and their mums should certainly love it. The film has bucketloads of charm and is an admirable civilised treat, but I can’t see many blokes liking it much. ‘Let’s get in a few beers and check out Oz’, I don’t think so. Maybe dads will take their young daughters.

Usual suspect Danny Elfman is a shoo-in for the vintage-style score, and makes a thoroughly brilliant job of it, but why, oh why, didn’t they let him compose, say, three musical numbers for the movie? This would have both cheered and broken things up when it was all getting a bit dull and samey. The only musical number is frustratingly cut off short by Franco (though, to be fair, it isn’t much good). And, beware, there’s dreadful song called Almost Home performed by Mariah Carey to endure.

It’s probably the film’s finest achievement that it honours and stays true to the spirit of the original books and the1939 evergreen classic The Wizard of Oz. Yet the Munchkins and people of Oz are strangely sidelined, with little screen time, and the china doll (voice of Joey King) and the talking, flying monkey (voice of Zach Braff) make boring, borderline annoying companions for Franco along the yellow brick road.

They’re nowhere in the league of Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and Tin Man from the old movie. They’re just not. And where, oh where, is Dorothy? Lost somewhere over the rainbow, I suppose.

In the event, the movie was a stonking great success, taking $235million at the US at the box office, pretty much guaranteeing a sequel, with loads more of L Frank Baum’s books to raid. Oh well, bring it on!

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(C) Derek Winnert 2013 derekwinnert.com

© Derek Winnert 2013 Movie Review

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