Oz The Great and Powerful

[RobinHood26]

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Edited August 17, 2018 by Jay Hollywood

[Blankments]

I enjoyed it. Yes, at points Franco and Kunis had poor acting and the story was very predictable, but overall it was a very fun and enjoyable movie. A-

[75Live]

I saw this yesterday and it was pretty good, but nothing great.China girl did steal the movie like others have said. Mila Kunis was fine until she became he wicked witch. After that she was horrible.Overall, still a decent movie and enjoyable to watch.B

[cheesypoofs]

I did not enjoy myself one bit.  My friends and I couldn't even finish the movie before we just asked for our money back. We got an hour and a half in and just couldn't take it anymore.  This was the first movie that I've ever had to walk out of.

[75Live]

I saw this yesterday and it was pretty good, but nothing great.China girl did steal the movie like others have said. Mila Kunis was fine until she became he wicked witch. After that she was horrible.Overall, still a decent movie and enjoyable to watch.B

 

 

I did not enjoy myself one bit.  My friends and I couldn't even finish the movie before we just asked for our money back. We got an hour and a half in and just couldn't take it anymore.  This was the first movie that I've ever had to walk out of.

 

Ok, I will amend.  It is not enjoyable to everyone

[acsc1312]

Meanders too much, but I liked a lot of aspects. B-

[Hiccup]

I feel like I was the only one who liked Kunis's performance.

[Gopher]

Kunis herself is fine- she's given a horribly, illogically stupid character to work with. 

[dashrendar44]

Like Franco's Oz character, there's good in it:

 

-The introducing scenes in B/W are funny in presenting Oz as a charming but selfish con artist but I can see people deemed him unlikable and despicable but for me he didn't cross that line so I still care to see how he would evolve from that point throughout the movie, even if at the end of the movie Franco didn't really convince me he had a real change of mind...

 

-China Girl first appearance is heart-wrenching and so beautifully crafted, her character is so poetic and I like how it really resonated the most with disabled Joey King at the beginning. She really got me misty eyed at times but she's also sassy so she provides as much laughter. I also liked Finley that plays a good sidekick mirroring Braff's assistant  character even if I'd like him to be more present, more banter and action from him)

 

-Visually, most of the time, it's marvellous to stare at, from the twister to the Oz's falls, from Emerald City to the Dark Forest and the iconic China Town. Those set pieces are good at building a fantasy world with different atmospheres and moods without looking too fake and stagey most of the time.

 

-Hints to Wizard of Oz (Lion, Scarecrow, Munchkins)

 

-Evanora's deadite appearance was a nice nod to his Evil Dead movie but children will have wet nightmares.

 

-The climax gave me chills especially Oz doing his Shoshanna's moment. The power of movie illusion at play.

 

but there are very low points:

 

-Kunis character's arc is all over the place, her transformation is all so sudden, rushed and she just appears to be a real puppet, Kunis doesn't have the skills to pull this off to save this uneven character from falling into corny cliche role from a Telenovela even if she's trying hard when she's crying (bad) and shrieking (laughably bad). "NOO MERCYYYY!", "I HATE YOUUUUU!!!". Please, shut your slime hole.

 

Too bad, all her appearances (thanks to bizarre evil but yet sexy cleavage make-up) are cringe-worthy especially knowing the explanation of her turning to the dark side of the wizardry. Thanks for ruining Wicked Witch of the West great imagery with a crappy script implying she's a credulous little virgin that got her heart broken after a one-night stand...Weisz is much better to ham that kind of part up with confident self-awareness and she should have been the Wicked Witch of the West.

 

-The redundancy in each witches meeting Oz: "Are you a wizard? Are you THE wizard of Oz? The wizard of Oz from the prophecy? The prophecy that ,you, the great Wizard of Oz we're desperately looking for, will save the good people of Oz from the wicked witch? (Cue Oz ankward smile, hesitating and lying. Again. And again. And again...). I know it's a kids movie but by the 50 times, I think we got it and it became tedious.

 

-Glenda's place is quite bland (like Fantasyland backlot) looking compared to Emerald City. Too stagey, some fake exteriors on the yellow brick road also looked dodgy like SW prequels. Franco seems pasted on a green screen in some scenes because of obvious lighting differences.

 

-Franco's performance was good at the beginning like he did care about but somewhere in the middle, his acting meanders back and forth. It's like in some takes he's about to yawn and don't give a damn about all that lovey dovey stuff but thanks to the climax, he wakes up to pull off his greatest trick. He actually cares about Oz and that movie more that I was led to think reaching the post-middle section.

 

-In general, the script is quite clumsy, simplistic and twisted all at the same time. Naive women living all their life waiting for a male saviour to be his devoting Queen, male saviour that happens to be a sleazeball and a liar that jumped from couch to couch in a snap, women that are wicked witches manipulating the greasy con man exploiting his greed as a way to achieve greatness. WTF is going on in that kid movie?!

 

-Morevover, the double entendre at some points are (voluntary or not) ankwardly funny like they want to spice up your PG Disney's flick and see how far they can get away with it. ("It's so tight in there", "I know what you're up to Wizard") Franco's sleazeball gaze each time he meets a gorgeous witch. (I could hear his mind screams "THREESOME!!" when Theodora introduced him to Evanora). I notice his weird grin at Glinda in the dark forest like he was high as fuck or drooling over her cleavage. So sometimes, that got me giggling, others that got me like "Gosh, it's so lame!".

 

-Elfman's score is serviceable. Not great, not bad. The recurring Magic Box theme is good ole Elfman doing Elfman's good ole eerie waltz.

 

But in the end, I don't think it adds much to the mythology of Oz. It's like a borderline comedy like a tame Princess Bride without the same distance and wit that happens to be set in the same fantasy place that the Fleming's movie. Better than Alice but just because Raimi tries hard to believe in that to cover up the script issues in being imaginative with the obvious restrictions of the material, it's just the same old without much differences except Oz embraced the greatness of living in a fantasy world and did not open a fireworks factory in China. It's not really the greatest achievement to take pride from.

 

I gave this a B-/C+.

Edited March 12, 2013 by dashrendar44

[jstevan]

I feel like I was the only one who liked Kunis's performance.

You're not the only one, there's a two of us 

[Hiccup]

Question. When the necklace broke did Evanora lose all her powers? Why did she fly away at the end?

[dashrendar44]

Question. When the necklace broke did Evanora lose all her powers? Why did she fly away at the end?

 

Isn't that necklace her "wand", is it? That's how I saw it.

 

OTOT, they talk about sequel without Raimi? Lolwut? Is there any other interesting and compelling story to tell beside Dorothy's journey to Oz after this movie that would not sound redundant (Even if Oz's journey already seems to be redundant)?

Edited March 12, 2013 by dashrendar44

[jstevan]

I hope someone makes NO MERCYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY and NEVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH gifs So I can restore Team Bombur - putting the ham back where it belongs - on your plate! sig.

you gave me an idea, here's your gifs, spread the haminess!   http://stevac.tumblr.com/post/45160976518

[Goffe]

You're not the only one, there's a two of us 

three

[Spidey Freak]

The culprit isn't Mila. As dashrendar pointed out, Theodora was a hot mess from the beginning and scenes that should have been significant for her character arc were heavily rushed, inadequate, and in typical Raimi style, deliberately hammed up. I doubt even Rachel could have saved that character. Raimi and the writers did a hatchet job on an incredibly iconic villain here. It is SM3 and Venom all over again.

[Jessie]

A complete bore, I walked out the cinema. Oh and what the fuck happened to Mila Kunis? She used to be hot :(E

Edited March 12, 2013 by Jessie

[Robertron]

A complete bore, I walked out the cinema. Oh and what the fuck happened to Mila Kunis? She used to be hot :(E

Tell me about it! She looked soooo ugly in some parts.But I'll just remember her by FwB.

[Spidey Freak]

But I'll just remember her by FwB.

 

I really like Mila but, I distinctly remember her having a weird witch-like cackle laugh in that movie as well! 

[fishstick]

you gave me an idea, here's your gifs, spread the haminess!   http://stevac.tumblr.com/post/45160976518

 

They are great and exactly what I need but can`t use them because they are too big for sig requirements here. if you can resize them I`ll defintiely use them.

[Hiccup]

This one is going to be used a shit ton over the summer/Holiday season.