A mischievous magician gains the wisdom to become a powerful ruler after being swept away to a land of magic and mystery as director Sam Raimi and screenwriters Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole) explore the genesis of author L. Frank Baum's enduring tales of Oz. Shady illusionist Oscar Diggs (James Franco) enchants curious audiences at a Kansas circus. A self-professed con man, he's a fast-talking performer who aspires to follow in the footsteps of inventors like Thomas Edison. Oscar is being chased across the circus grounds by the rampaging Strongman when a tornado blows in and everyone runs for cover. Seeing a hot-air balloon as his only chance for escape, the illusionist jumps in and cuts himself free. Magically transported to the wondrous world of Oz, he soon encounters Theodora (Mila Kunis), a temperamental witch who surmises that he is the wizard named after their land (Oscar's nickname is Oz), foretold to fall from the sky, defeat a nasty witch, and ascend to the throne. Theodora takes Oscar to the Emerald City to meet her sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz), a powerful witch who reveals that he cannot become the rightful ruler of Oz until he's accomplished his mission. Later, as Oscar and his new flying-monkey companion Finley (voice of Zach Braff) prepare to face their fearsome enemy, they're joined by the fragile but fearless China Girl (voice of Joey King) and benevolent witch Glinda the Good (Michelle Williams), who helps them prepare for the arduous battle ahead. Together with the brave people of Oz, Oscar draws up a plan to rid the land of evil once and for all, and become the great and powerful king who will rule from his throne in the Emerald City. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
My Family's review:
I was skeptical of this one. Maybe I'm just cynical when it comes to my expectations of movies that try to connect to an all time great play and movie that I loved as a kid. I really didn't know how they were going to pull this off or if they were going to build a script true to the books on Oz. Let me tell you, I WAS IN LOVE with the imagery in this movie. It did start off rather slow. The black and white was expected but the story line built a less then stellar love of the main character, Mr. Oz. He was a womanizer, selfish, con man that just happened to know some magic tricks and yet, I still wanted to know more about him and how his character would evolve. Once he got to Oz the story picked up and his softer side started to peek through. By the end of the movie I wanted to stand up and clap at how well they stuck to the book's portrayal of the Wizard and I had fallen in love with this character, cheered for him and fell in love with the Wizard named Oz all over again. Bravo! So I give this a 4.5 wands out of 5. *Now my 9 year old told me he thought it was boring and only gave it a 3 but my girls and even my husband agreed with my 4.5.
You continue to review movies that I'm on the fence about...and I'm liking it! :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome DL! I'm a movie hound.
ReplyDeleteI knew that Baum had written a series of Oz novels, but the only one I read was the Wizard of Oz, or rather Dorothy's story. So I wondered if this movie was actually based on one of the books, or if someone just did a sequel/prequel of the movie. Good to know it's true to the books.
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to see the movie, and this one with all the scenery seems like it should be a good one to see at a movie theater. I should take the grandchildren....