Oz the Great and Powerful
IMDB rate: 6,8
Genre: Fantasy
So yesterday I finally saw Oz the Great and Powerful. I really was looking forward to it because I usually enjoy fantasy movies a lot. There were good actors in this movie, it was directed by Sam Raimi and it had a reasonably high rate, so I figured, it must be a good movie. However, I did not like it. It was not a bad movie, but I expected so much more from it, and it was so disappointing eventually.
Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz. At first he thinks he's hit the jackpot-fame and fortune are his for the talking. That all changes when he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone's been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and it's inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity- and even a bit of wizardry - Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.
So as you might notice, there are pretty big names in this movie. I normally love James Franco in every movie, he just has that boyish charm and he's quite a good actor. I loved him in almost every movie he played in. However, in this movie he was a just plain boring. He's definitely using that boyish charm of him, but for some reason, it did not work. His acting was a bit fake and it seemed more like he played in a musical instead of a movie. I thought the same of Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz, they're both real good actresses, but I think this movie just did not suit them. I did enjoy Michelle Williams though, I must admit that I don't know her very well, but she acted very well. The dialogues were bad though.
Another thing that I hated was the incredible overuse of green screen. It was so obvious and so bad. I think 99% of this movie was shot in front of a green screen. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it all looked very fake. I know that Oz is supposed to be a magical and beautiful land but you don't have to accentuate it that much. But it was not only the green screen that was accentuated too much, it was almost everything. The acting was too much, the story was too much and the animations were also too much. If they just made this movie a lot more mild it would have been so much better.
Things that I did like was Zach Braff's character. While it was only his voice, you could almost recognize him in everything. His personage reminded me a lot of Donkey from Shrek. I love Donkey so that's a good thing. Another thing that I liked was the switch they made from a small black and white screen to a normal colorful screen. There was also a nice combined story line. For example, at the beginning, in the real world, you see a girl that can't walk and who Oscar can't help, and in Oz Oscar finds a China Doll with broken legs and he can fix her legs. Or the assistant (Zach Braff) that was ignored the whole time by Oscar in the real world, and the same sort character shows up in Oz and they do become friends eventually. It was a nice touch the story, but unfortunately, that was one of the few.
I think if this movie had a better cast it would've been much better, but unfortunately, the cast was not the only thing that was wrong with this movie.
My personal rate: 4,5
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