Off to see the Wizard

Off to see the Wizard

The Great and Powerful Oz

To start off spring break on a good note be and my fellow Blogger Dani and I went to go see The Great and Powerful Oz. The worst thing about going to a movie on a Wednesday at 2pm is that it is empty, we were the only people there to see it in 3D, which made for an interesting experience. So the movie was staring James Franco as OZ, Mila Kunis as Thedora, Rachel Weisz as the evil Evanora, Michelle Williams as the good witch Glinda seem to be a nice formula for a Wizard of Oz spin off movie. The movie was a mixture of new and the old, subtle hints to the original movie while giving the movie its own tone. Unlike the original Wizard of Oz the lack of musical numbers is made up for well-timed heartfelt moments and a good sense of humor. While they gave some subtle hints to the origins of other original cast of the Wizard of Oz I felt that the tin man was missing from the rest of the film. The introduction of other themes and unfinished plot holes were aplenty, what happened to the cowardly lion, was he a friend of Glinda? What about the porcelain girl’s town and family that was destroyed by the Evil witches and that she and went through the five stages of grief very fast, she should write a book on grieving.

The visual design of Oz was breathe taking and they pulled out all the stops to make it not only feel like you were returning or visiting Oz for the first time all the while adding a distinct feel to the world of Oz. There were time that the 3D was overwhelming, I never quite understood why people enjoy having CGI spears being thrown at their face, and it does take away from the experience during the more action intense scenes. While there was a lot of talk about magic, there was very little use of magic between all the witches and I was left wanting more from the final confrontation. Besides my complaints I felt that the CGI and the backgrounds worked in smoothly and was a great re-imagination of the world of Oz.

Colin N.