Oz, Neither Great nor Powerful

Oz The Great and Powerful is a 2013 Disney prequel to the 1939 MGM film, directed by Spider-Man director Sam Rami. The film stars James Franco as Oscar Diggs, a small town traveling magician from Kansas, who is whisked away in a tornado to a magical land called Oz, where ha encounters three witches: Mila Kunis plays Theodora, Michelle Williams plays Glinda, the good witch of the south and Rachel Weisz plays evanora, the wicked witch of the east. The film uses a spectacularly large amount of CGI, and a large part of the film was made on a digital backlot.

The film is set many years before the events of The Wizard of Oz, and describes the wizard's arrival in Oz. Oscar Diggs is swept away to a magical land by a hot air balloon while he is attempting to escape from the wrath of his investors. Diggs discovers a world in turmoil, where three witches fight for power. The problem with this film is that it has no message, the film says nothing about power or magic, and the character of Oz is totally miscast, with James Franco lacking the slick charm of the magician, and seeming like merely a slimeball. The films only message seems to be that cheating pays, and nothing is said about what truly makes a great man great, a missed opportunity rather.  The film is only a semi-prequel to The Wizard of Oz, and the film makes little reference to the 1939 film, neither visually nor stylistically. The narrative of the film somewhat follows the MGM film, with Oscar meeting Dorothy's mother in kansas, and Diggs being sucked into Oz in the same way that Dorothy was. Stylistically the film shares very little with The Wizard of Oz. The only real similarity is that the film opens in black and white and transforms into color when Diggs enters Oz. The film also begins in the old fashioned 'academy' ratio, and gradually expands into widescreen.

The film looks very little like the original film, the MGM film used largely low-fi practical effects. For instance the door opening to color was achieved with some very careful painting of the door, a sepia tinted outfit and a slight tint on the whole first segment led to a very convincing effect. The whole of the 1939 film was filmed in a studio, whereas this film was mostly made on a digital backlot, sacrificing reality for fakery, and grounded imagery for fancy graphics, and The film for the most part looks terrible. Generally this film can be split into three segments, the first black and white segment, the second segment set on and around the yellow brick road, and the final segment, which portrays the battle for Oz. The second segment looks the worse, and is the one which looks the least grounded in reality. This segment was mainly shot on a digital background, and depicts a world in which everything looks larger than life, and giant. The problem with this is that rather than looking awe inspiring, James Franco just looks ridiculously small, and looks out of place, the real problem is that there is no point of reference, and the actors are simply pasted onto these backgrounds with no interaction between the characters and their surroundings.

The character of Finley is also a problem, the character looks fake and rubbery, and fails to leap the uncanny valley. However the character of China Girl is unbelievably cute. The final sequence of the film looks fantastic, and the filmmakers use an art deco style for the emerald city, and although the city differs from the in the MGM film, it looks fantastic. The film overall has a rather good script and a fun story and the overall conclusion of the story is really rather clever. The wicked witches costume annoyed me a little, as she has a strap round her neck, which makes her look really small and a little fat. The film also suffers from the fact that many of the iconic properties invented for the MGM film were not allowed for this film, due to the rights being held by Warner Bros. The ruby slippers are an example as well as the swirl design in munchkinland and the mole on the wicked witch of the west's chin and the exact color of her skin, this leads to the witch being presented as a small fa woman with an unappetizing skin color, as opposed to the real iconic monster in the 1939 film.

Overall many of the failures of this film are due to it being too tied in to the film world of the MGM film, yet legal issues hamper it from becoming a true prequel, and from having the classic iconic feel of the original. Overall the film looks withering and lacks any real grounding, the characters seem superimposed and photoshopped onto their environments. The story is rather clever, however it has no meaning and says nothing about power or greatness. this film pails in comparison to Return to Oz which looks better and has more substance. 50% prequel, 50% spinoff; 100% pointless Rating: C+

Theodora: Aren't you the great man we've been waiting for?