Movie Review: Oz the Great and Powerful
Mar. 16th, 2013 09:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jpskewedthroneI have to admit that I went in to see Oz the Great and Powerful with some tribulation. I mean, there’s no way you can make a movie as good as The Wizard of Oz. It just can’t be done. And there was so much that could go wrong in trying to revisit this magical land. But I decided it needed to be seen.
I probably don’t need to explain the premise, but here goes: This is the story of how the Wizard of Oz became the Wizard of Oz as seen in the original The Wizard of Oz. We see Oscar (who’s stage name is Oz) performing magic in a small traveling circus while schmoozing all the ladies. When one of the husbands (or perhaps boyfriends) finds out, he tries to escape in a hot air balloon and is caught in a tornado, which transports him to the land of Oz. There, he’s seen as the prophecied wizard who will save them from the Wicked Witch. But he finds himself surrounded with witches—good and bad—and sets off to kill the Wicked Witch, along with a few sidekicks he picks up along the way. Of course, along the way, he finds out more about himself and what kind of person he could and can be, if he only believed and wanted it.
This movie had some really great moments . . . and it also had some issues. I’ll start with the great moments. First, it is obvious that it was lovingly written and directed by people who love the land of Oz, its character, and its feel—both the books by L. Frank Baum and the original movie. This movie has the same feel and the same heart as that movie, and pays homage to it rather well. There are loveable sidekicks (in fact, the China Girl pretty much steals the movie), the sets have the same feel, and for the most part the tone of the movie is the same as the original. You have the parallels between people in the real world and people in Oz. You have Oscar unable to solve his problems in the real world, but manages to face them all in Oz and become the person he’s always wanted and dreamed himself to be. And you have some of the “origin” stories for more than just the wizard. There are small nods to the original movie throughout, along with some major setup for that movie in terms of characters and situation.
All of this is good. In addition, there are some really strong plot elements in this movie. The way the movie resolves itself is the best part of the movie altogether, and that ending was slowly set up in bits and pieces throughout. Not just the plot but the character arcs as well. In particular, the real relationship character arc for Oscar, which was played perfectly in my opinion (both in the real world and in Oz). There were some good plot twists; a few that weren’t expected. And of course some of the visuals were spectacular and true to the Oz in the books. [Aside: I saw the 2D version, and while the visuals were good throughout, there were some obvious scenes that were thrown in just to wow with the 3D effects and came off as just unnecessary filler in the 2D version.]
So there were some really good elements in this movie, and those elements in the end outweighed the issues I had with the movie. But those issues still make me wince when I think about them. And what they? Well . . . there were some rough spots in the acting. I did not buy, for an instant, the smarmy Oscar in the first half of the movie (with an appearance of this at one spot later on as well). James Franco just didn’t pull this off. Oscar is supposed to be a philanderer and for this part of the movie his entire persona is essentially supposed to be an act. You’re supposed to be able to see the smarm and get hints of the real Oscar beneath. But Franco doesn’t pull it off. It’s a subtle little characterization and it just didn’t work for me. I cringed in each of these scenes. I would like to say that I completely bought Franco when he WASN’T playing with the façade. But unfortunately, if you’re supposed to be a spectacular con man, you need to be able to con the audience into believing the façade and that just didn’t happen.
There were also some rough spots where the movie just didn’t know what audience it was shooting for. Some scenes play to a younger audience, while others to an older one, and they just didn’t fit together smoothly. And I’m not talking about the womanizing here, which I thought struck a decent middle ground. Most of this came down to the acting—a little too over the top, which made the scene seem like it was targeted toward a younger audience when it shouldn’t have been. In fact, now that I think about it, most of my issues with the movie all boil down to acting issues, where a scene or part wasn’t played right or with the subtlety that was required. Yet it wasn’t a particular actor that was always bad; the actors were in general all up and down throughout the movie. (Except for Michelle Williams, who played Glinda and was great throughout, along with Joey King, who played the China Girl. Both of them were great.)
In the end, I thought it was a good movie, worth seeing, but it definitely needed some more . . . polishing. The spectacular ending, where all of the little bits and pieces of the plot and character come together, and where Oscar finds the true Oz within himself, is what saves the movie overall, but there were good bits and pieces all over the place. If someone had simply gone through and reshot some of the cringe-worthy rough spots in the acting in places (again, not restricted to one actor in particular), it could have been a great movie.
I probably don’t need to explain the premise, but here goes: This is the story of how the Wizard of Oz became the Wizard of Oz as seen in the original The Wizard of Oz. We see Oscar (who’s stage name is Oz) performing magic in a small traveling circus while schmoozing all the ladies. When one of the husbands (or perhaps boyfriends) finds out, he tries to escape in a hot air balloon and is caught in a tornado, which transports him to the land of Oz. There, he’s seen as the prophecied wizard who will save them from the Wicked Witch. But he finds himself surrounded with witches—good and bad—and sets off to kill the Wicked Witch, along with a few sidekicks he picks up along the way. Of course, along the way, he finds out more about himself and what kind of person he could and can be, if he only believed and wanted it.
This movie had some really great moments . . . and it also had some issues. I’ll start with the great moments. First, it is obvious that it was lovingly written and directed by people who love the land of Oz, its character, and its feel—both the books by L. Frank Baum and the original movie. This movie has the same feel and the same heart as that movie, and pays homage to it rather well. There are loveable sidekicks (in fact, the China Girl pretty much steals the movie), the sets have the same feel, and for the most part the tone of the movie is the same as the original. You have the parallels between people in the real world and people in Oz. You have Oscar unable to solve his problems in the real world, but manages to face them all in Oz and become the person he’s always wanted and dreamed himself to be. And you have some of the “origin” stories for more than just the wizard. There are small nods to the original movie throughout, along with some major setup for that movie in terms of characters and situation.
All of this is good. In addition, there are some really strong plot elements in this movie. The way the movie resolves itself is the best part of the movie altogether, and that ending was slowly set up in bits and pieces throughout. Not just the plot but the character arcs as well. In particular, the real relationship character arc for Oscar, which was played perfectly in my opinion (both in the real world and in Oz). There were some good plot twists; a few that weren’t expected. And of course some of the visuals were spectacular and true to the Oz in the books. [Aside: I saw the 2D version, and while the visuals were good throughout, there were some obvious scenes that were thrown in just to wow with the 3D effects and came off as just unnecessary filler in the 2D version.]
So there were some really good elements in this movie, and those elements in the end outweighed the issues I had with the movie. But those issues still make me wince when I think about them. And what they? Well . . . there were some rough spots in the acting. I did not buy, for an instant, the smarmy Oscar in the first half of the movie (with an appearance of this at one spot later on as well). James Franco just didn’t pull this off. Oscar is supposed to be a philanderer and for this part of the movie his entire persona is essentially supposed to be an act. You’re supposed to be able to see the smarm and get hints of the real Oscar beneath. But Franco doesn’t pull it off. It’s a subtle little characterization and it just didn’t work for me. I cringed in each of these scenes. I would like to say that I completely bought Franco when he WASN’T playing with the façade. But unfortunately, if you’re supposed to be a spectacular con man, you need to be able to con the audience into believing the façade and that just didn’t happen.
There were also some rough spots where the movie just didn’t know what audience it was shooting for. Some scenes play to a younger audience, while others to an older one, and they just didn’t fit together smoothly. And I’m not talking about the womanizing here, which I thought struck a decent middle ground. Most of this came down to the acting—a little too over the top, which made the scene seem like it was targeted toward a younger audience when it shouldn’t have been. In fact, now that I think about it, most of my issues with the movie all boil down to acting issues, where a scene or part wasn’t played right or with the subtlety that was required. Yet it wasn’t a particular actor that was always bad; the actors were in general all up and down throughout the movie. (Except for Michelle Williams, who played Glinda and was great throughout, along with Joey King, who played the China Girl. Both of them were great.)
In the end, I thought it was a good movie, worth seeing, but it definitely needed some more . . . polishing. The spectacular ending, where all of the little bits and pieces of the plot and character come together, and where Oscar finds the true Oz within himself, is what saves the movie overall, but there were good bits and pieces all over the place. If someone had simply gone through and reshot some of the cringe-worthy rough spots in the acting in places (again, not restricted to one actor in particular), it could have been a great movie.
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