Oz the Great and Powerful Reviews

Warning: Spoilers
I love anything to do with The Wizard of Oz. The story is a classic, and the 1939 Judy Garland film is for me one of the best films ever made. And I liked the idea of having a prequel to this story, and Oz the Great and Powerful had potential to be great in the right hands. I was kind of intrepid though as well because I heard a lot of bad things about it, and while it was not as bad as I'd heard it was a disappointment. And this was including me taking into account that it is a family movie and that any film should be judged on its own merits.

Oz the Great and Powerful does have a fair few things that redeem it. I loved the visuals, I thought on seeing the trailer that they looked amazing and on seeing the film itself I still stand by that. The colours are truly beautiful to look at and the cinematography and camera angles don't intrude too much and allow us to properly enjoy the visuals. The costumes and sets equally fanciful, Michelle Williams in particular looks radiant, while the CGI effects have moments where they are generic, but on the most part they're fine. Danny Elfman's score doesn't have the whimsical, poignant magic that his Edward Scissorhands score has for example, but it is both sparkling and rousing and you really feel a sense of fantasy and adventure when hearing it. When it comes to individual scenes, the highlight was the expertly done and thrilling tornado sequence, it looked great and didn't feel dragged out too long. And there are two performances that are good. Coming off the best was Rachel Weisz who is deliciously sassy and seductive. Michelle Williams occasionally comes across as a little too airy-fairy, but she also makes a good impression, being wondrous visually and being full of charm and benevolence.

James Franco and Mila Kunis did absolutely nothing for me though. Franco I've liked before in other films, the finest example being 127 Hours, but I did feel that in perhaps an attempt to be quirky that he wildly overdid his part, his smirking- almost like he was stoned- grated really fast. Kunis unfortunately is bland personified, granted she was not given much worthwhile to work with but I just could not buy her at all as a Wicked Witch and there is no expression at all in her eyes. The voice acting is serviceable but never much more than that. Franco and Kunis are not the only let downs to the film. The script, story and pacing were really big issues in this regard. The script tries to incorporate too many things all at once and instead of doing this successfully it comes across as muddled and stilted instead. The story starts off well, but quickly becomes contrived, paper-thin and rushed with next to none of the enchantment, sense of wonder and emotional resonance that the story and 1939 film have. Relationships are introduced quickly and end even quicker than that. The overall pacing was rushed, but the lack of any genuine excitement also eventually made the film a sludge as it tries to stretch a very thin plot longer than it needed to be. The characters also are ones that we never learn anything about and consequently I didn't properly care for a single one.

All in all, has its good points and things to enjoy but this Oz is not as great or as powerful as it had potential to be. Not bad, but disappointing all the same. 5/10 Bethany Cox

To be honest, even though I thought that 'The Wizard of Oz' was quite enjoyable, I have never been a huge fan but since I always had a weak spot for Sam Raimi's work, I was quite eager to check this prequel. Well, at least, you have to admit that it was visually quite impressive, maybe a little too much like Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland, but still pretty to look at, and even though the story was not really amazing, it was still fairly entertaining. The main issue, in my opinion, is that even though it might have seemed like a good idea to focus on the Wizard, the guy was and still is pretty much a douche-bag which made it rather difficult to care about what he was going through. The other thing that bothered me was the time they spent on who was actually a good witch and who was actually wicked. Finally, with a prequel like this one, since you already know pretty much how it will end, it is rather tricky to keep the audience interested and they only partially succeeded. To conclude, even though it was not really great whatsoever, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I guess you could call this a prequel to the classic Wizard of Oz because, although it says it's based on the whole book series, it makes many attempts to keep continuity with that movie.
The plot is that a carnival magician nicknamed Oz is whisked away to the Land of Oz in a tornado (what else?), and learns that a prophecy foretold he'd save the land from all evil.
I obviously wasn't expecting this to be as good as The Wizard of Oz, but maybe it'd still be fun. Well, parts of it were, but the overall tone of the movie was a bit of a letdown. For the most part, it just felt like it was being aimed exclusively at young children, especially in how a lot of the dialogue is either overly simplistic or states the obvious.
On top of that, the acting is pretty wooden, and the CGI just looks too artificial to make Oz seem real.
But like I said before, I did really like parts of it. The climactic battle had some very clever moments that I won't dare spoil. I'm glad they didn't go for the clichéd "liar revealed" scene. But for me, the main highlight was the little china girl: she was simply adorable, and her introductory scene was actually genuinely heartbreaking.
Overall, the dialogue and visuals were constantly disheartening, but the good parts were still good enough that I can't quite say I disliked it.

My rating: 45%

For this prequel to even come close to the timeless magic of The Wizard Of Oz was virtually impossible, especially when Hollywood are loaded on remakes, sequels and prequels with CGI effects. However, Oz The Great And Powerful is a telling of the story leading to the events of the 1939 classic; hence, we get an insight to how Oz became the Wizard and the relationship between the witches. With this in mind, there was a great deal of curiosity about Oz The Great And Powerful but like many films that focus primarily on visuals, expectations were average. Despite the film was corny regarding script and narrative structure, it was still a visual delight that marks a satisfactory return to Oz.


Oz The Great And Powerful had so much going for it regarding visuals, but there was more against it in terms of narrative structure, characters and plot. So, in order for it to succeed, an experienced and recognised director was required. Sam Raimi already took a huge turn in his career from the director of Evil Dead to Spider-Man, but Oz The Great And Powerful had become an even more unusual addition to his filmography. However, on a visual level, Raimi can deliver and his representation of Oz could be an interesting transformation. However, while his work on Oz The Great And Powerful is fantastic, visually, and is worth paying to watch in 3D, there is quite a number of flat, bland elements that does not make it the experience that it should have been.


After 73 years, Oz The Great And Powerful clearly was not going to be the same as the 1939 classic starring Judy Garland, but portraying some kind of contribution would satisfy fans. Also, due to the high number of films today in a similar category to Oz The Great And Powerful, a hint of originality needed to be included. Therefore, audiences would rely on the film to capture the breath-taking visual experience along with using tools of originality from the 1939 version. However, it was difficult because the film was not going to achieve both at the same time and unfortunately it didn’t. The narrative structure was not in a word ‘shambles’ but it did have a similar idea behind the story like in Alice In Wonderland and The Chronicles Of Narnia. That is what audiences are used to now with technological advancements and Oz The Great And Powerful severely lacked the imagination of a new adventure and became extremely predictable.


James Franco makes his fourth collaborative appearance in a Sam Raimi film, but this time in the leading role as Oscar Diggs, a small-time magician who enters the Land of Oz and makes his path to become the Wizard. Following Frank Morgan’s eccentric portrayal of the character in The Wizard Of Oz, James Franco would not be at the top of the list to portray the Wizard at a younger age. However, Franco is at the prime of his career so he must have been cast in the role of such a big character for a reason other than as a box office booster. Unfortunately, Franco’s performance was disappointing. There was a severe lack of charisma about his role and at times, it was just James Franco playing himself in a fancy costume. The character of Oscar Diggs is suitable in Oz and the pieces fit which lead to the original version but Franco’s mediocre performance does not completely fulfill what we should have seen.


In supporting roles were Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams as the Three Witches of Oz. First, there’s Kunis, most certainly a cash-grabbing selection in the cast, as Theodora who transforms into a certain witch that we have seen before. Very much like Oscar Diggs, Theodora as a character was handled rather well but again, it was the actor who failed. Kunis’ attractive appearance is bound to catch the eye of the audience but there was just nothing beyond that. In fact, her role came across as boring and even the character development was not getting anywhere and suddenly altered without telling the audience. However, Rachel Weisz is the complete stand-out performer as Evanora, who becomes a scheming, beautiful character who seduces the audience with her magic and totally sweeps away Julia Roberts’ performance in Mirror Mirror. Michelle Williams delivers a great performance too as Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. In a nutshell, some of the characters should have had a better cast and the inclusion of CGI characters should have been excluded.


Audiences will come to the conclusion that Oz The Great And Powerful is your ordinary 3D, large-scale blockbuster but has a large, old-fashioned background behind it. The film was playing with fire as it had to become a film by itself but at the same time, pay some kind of homage to The Wizard Of Oz. Nevertheless, while Oz The Great And Powerful uses specific references from the classic and becomes at least a decent effort, it is still a mixed bag that ignites how much miscasting and bad screenwriting can jeopardise the quality of a film as a film.

It’s a folly of spectacular proportions to try and recapture the magic of L. Frank Baum’s texts. MGM’s lavish and beloved musical is a milestone of special effects and makeup while simultaneously being a perfect example of big budget (musical) entertainment operating at the highest level. Any and every endeavor to recapture it has only ended in diminished artistic returns or lack of audience interest, or both a great deal of the time.

So, where does that leave Oz the Great and Powerful? Stuck in-between two different films, each fighting to top the other at any given moment, but it at least winds up be passably entertaining and very cute. If that seems like faint praise, well, it kind of is. Sam Raimi’s darker impulses are so much juicier and lively than the rest of the film surrounding them that it’s a pity Disney commanded him to rein it in.

For much of Oz, Disney clearly has given the orders that the tremendous amount of money that they spent to make the thing be placed on the screen. Each time we’re introduced to a new town or part of the forest in Oz, it unfolds for like five minutes as flower’s bloom and all the various fauna emerge. It’s pretty the first time it happens, as in, when our future wizard is introduced to the Land of Oz, but even that scene wears thin. There’s no point to half of the wonders on display, and too much of a good thing becomes dull and trying after a time. There’s more life and spirit in the matte painting and plastic-looking trees and leaves in the original than in all of the technical profundities on display here.

When Raimi is allowed to unleash his inner kitsch loving darker dramatist, Oz is wickedly entertaining. Mila Kunis’ transformation, Rachel Weisz’s sweetly monstrous witch, the pure dread the flying monkeys can generate or the remnants of an attack on a China doll village linger in the imagination. Disney used to know this and I found it be profoundly true, tales and images that generate terror in childhood linger in the imagination far longer than anything soft and sweet. The original film’s fairy tale simplicity, in which the Wicked Witch is possibly the most memorable character in the whole film, attests to this. When Disney let Raimi let his freak flag fly is when Oz proves to be something more than piggy-backing on a classic.

While James Franco tries his hardest, and it’s not really his fault that his performance is lacking a certain ingredient, he is slightly miscast as our hero. The character needs a very specific fast-talking snake-oil salesman charm, and Franco is too earnest, artsy and indie to project that kind of swarm. Mila Kunis gives it her all, but her witch ends up lacking and coming across as too one-note. Weisz and Michelle Williams are divine in their roles. Weisz seems to take great joy and be having a lot of fun in playing someone so bad and who enjoys being that way. Williams is a pallid beauty who finds the perfect combination between determined and ethereal as Glinda, and makes her eventually transformation into Billie Burke’s sweet and majestic version easily accessible.

However flawed and unnecessary Oz the Great and Powerful may be, it is still an incredible amount of fun. Perhaps if I was exposed to this as a child, I would be in absolute heaven and forgiving of its faults. But I can only view this film, tonal inconsistent and only too happy to help you gorge on eye-candy, as an adult. There’s a minor charm and a good deal of fun to be had, but it’s neither great nor powerful.

For those who haven't seen Oz The Great and Powerful yet, this is a prequel to the Wizard of Oz. Though, this is pretty much Alice in Wonderland 2.0. Regardless, I still enjoyed Oz The Great and Powerful and it beats Alice in Wonderland by a whisker. It's a little odd to believe that Sam Raimi directed this. This isn't his best work but, in this awful start to the year Oz is one of the few to emerge on top.

I'm not really going to spend any more time typing up the plots of films but, it's basically a magician named Oscar Diggs (James Franco) getting blown into the land of Oz where he meets the three witches. Then, he ends up fighting for the Land of Oz after he realizes that there's more than just wanting to become rich and famous. There's more to the plot but, that's pretty much the gist of it.

I enjoyed Oz but, I had a few issues with it. It's mostly from the acting department. Some of the performances were flat and wooden. The most obvious is Mila Kunis. I guess it's no spoiler that she's the wicked witch (just look at the posters) but, she isn't wicked enough. I like Kunis but, this is her least inspired performance. The cartoonish make-up doesn't help either. Nothing against the make-up artists as everything else in nicely done, but her make-up job was just laughable to me. To make things even more awkward, she doesn’t have any chemistry with Franco at all in the beginning. I guess that has to do with Franco also being flat, though not as much as Kunis. So when she says she's in love with him it's unconvincing and out of place. The only time there's really a spark between Franco and someone else is when he's with Michelle Williams. Other than those things, everything else was just fine.

Now I know most people are going to avoid the 3-D but, I have to say I was impressed by it. There was only some noticeable blur when we first reach Oz. Other than that, the light levels seemed normal. There wasn't any dimness, everything was bright and beautiful. The picture quality was clear and the filmmakers manage to utilize the 3-D well. Things pop out of the screen but, not so much that it ends up feeling like it was just a gimmick. If you have the extra money I'd say it wouldn't hurt to invest it in the 3-D. I'm sure you'd have just as much fun in 2-D, but this is one of the rare times I can argue for 3-D.

Though I said some of the performances were flat, the rest certainly weren't. Michelle Williams gives a sweet performance as Glinda, while Rachel Weisz gives that wickedness that's needed for her character. I'm surprised that didn't carry over to Kunis since she was by Weisz's side for a good portion of the film. Zach Braff does a nice job playing Franco's assistant in the beginning and does some excellent vocal work as Finley. Same goes for Joey King, though her human role wasn't nearly as big as Braffs in the beginning. Lastly, we have Bill Cobbs who left a good impression as Master Tinker. The rest of the cast did a nice job with their limited parts.

Overall, this is a visual treat for the whole family. Sure some of the performances weren't anything spectacular and the chemistry between Franco and Kunis wasn’t there. However, everything else makes up for these things. The rest of the cast is great, the visuals are stunning, the 3-D is well utilized, and the pacing is nice. It's a 2 hour and 10 minute film yet it only felt like a half hour. With a lack of family films (both in terms of quantity and quality) thus far, Oz certainly is the one we've been waiting for.

After the success of Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland, there have been several attempts at remaking classics fantasies with a new twist and/or with expensive special effects. In fact, it's incredible that Disney has waited this long to release another high-profile fantasy flick. Though this might indicate that Disney is really taking their time to craft a quality product, it actually turns out to be quite the opposite. Oz the Great and Powerful is a soulless and hugely disappointing production that clearly exists only to make money.

Oscar Diggs, a sleazy magician, has his world turned upside down when he's swept into the land of Oz. He's quickly proclaimed as a prophecy-fulfilling wizard, who is now responsible for getting rid of the Wicked Witch. Teamed with a flying monkey named Finley, and China Girl; a living china doll, Oscar must fulfill the prophecy and rid Oz of the Wicked Witch.

Oz the Great and Powerful is a hugely mechanical and by-the-numbers film, lacking human touch or personality of its own. It contains all the basic elements that guarantee box office success: A talking animal (Finley), the basic "cute" character (China Girl), showy special effects, and an A-list star. Oz the Great and Powerful does almost nothing unexpected, and lacks any kind of magic or wonder.

The film starts well. Starting in black and white (which eventually turns to color once Oscar reaches Oz), the opening titles boast a vintage flair that really produces a magical feel. For the first 10 minutes, the film is clever, sometimes funny, and relatively well done. In fact, I was really enjoying myself, up until the point when we reach Oz. That's when things start to go downhill.

I was surprised at how little Oz the Great and Powerful has to do with The Wizard of Oz. Being a prequel, I was expecting many references and tie-ins with the original. Instead, it does almost nothing with the Oz world or characters. There's are a handful of similarities and obscure references, but Oz the Great and Powerful made very little use of the license. There's no ruby slippers, no references to Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and no foreshadowing of Dorothy. The few elements that are carried over from the original feel forced and tacked on, implying that the Oz name had little to do with the story, and more to do with increasing ticket sales.

The production just feels a lot like a Disney Channel sitcom. If not for the flashy special effects, this would feel right at home with Disney Channel's TV movies. Relationship drama, a tired and predictable plot, and stereotype "teen" humor are all major elements of Oz the Great and Powerful.

The editing is done surprisingly poorly. There are several flaws in continuity I spotted, including extras disappearing when camera angles are changed, or distances between characters being altered. Laziness abounds from all sides of the spectrum.

The film is tonally uneven. As a romance, it's too clumsy. As a drama, it lacks unique characters or a decent plot. As a comedy, much of the humor feels like it was pulled out of a stock bag. Seriously, I don't think there was more than maybe one or two original gags in the whole film.

I suppose I should state the obvious here and say that the visuals are fantastic. While not as dazzling as Burton's Alice In Wonderland, Oz the Great and Powerful boasts some great visual effects. Apart from one less-than-fantastic looking lion (and the fact that Finley doesn't look much like a monkey), the CGI is fantastic.

Acting is poor, and often clumsy. James Franco was completely the wrong actor for Oscar Diggs. He's not subtle enough to pull of the character's many layers, and he just comes across as someone with a multiple personality disorder. In one scene, he's a genuinely caring and kind man, in the next, he's leaving a little girl to walk home in the dark. Do you see a problem here?

The other actors don't fare much better. Mila Kunis as Theodora is cheesy and overly dramatic, much like Michelle Williams as Glinda, and Rachel Weisz as Evanora. Zach Braff provides a decidedly unenthusiastic and generic voice for Finley.

Danny Elfman's score is a much appreciated bright spot in this disappointing film. While most of Elfman's scores sound extremely similar to each other, his score for Oz the Great and Powerful is excellent, and much different than his usual work. Grand and very playful at times, this is certainly one of Elfman's best scores.

While mostly entertaining, Oz the Great and Powerful feels more like a corporate product than something anyone put any actual effort into. A shameless attempt at cashing in on a hot trend, Oz the Great and Powerful has little more than sparkly visuals to fall back on. Just as Oscar Diggs uses fancy illusions to steal audience's money, Oz the Great and Powerful uses vivid imagery to mask a product made purely for money and merchandising.

Perhaps what gets me the most about Oz the Great and Powerful is how much potential it had. The possibilities of a Wizard of Oz prequel are actually quite astounding. It's a shame that all creative possibilities were wasted into making this squarely mediocre production, that should've been so much more.

"I don't want to be a good man... I want to be a great one."

With Tim Burton's high-tech reworking of Alice in Wonderland having grossed a substantial sum in 2010, it was only a matter of time before another famous literary property received a big-budget update. The result is 2013's Oz the Great and Powerful, which serves as a prequel of sorts to the enduring 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. From the beginning, director Sam Raimi faced an uphill battle in undertaking this picture, as he needed to create a film that lives up to the legacy of the beloved Victor Fleming movie. Against all odds, the finished product is better than it had any right to be: a hugely enjoyable (if a bit overlong) and colourful family-friendly fantasy adventure that is lovingly referential to the old film while introducing plenty that is new to the world of Oz.

Oscar Diggs (James Franco) is a small-time illusionist nicknamed "Oz" who travels with the circus in the early 20th Century. Oscar is quite the con man, though, using cheap tricks to fool audiences into believing he's an actual magician. Following a performance in Kansas, Oscar finds himself in a sticky situation with the husband of a circus performer he romanced, and winds up taking to the sky in a hot air balloon just as a tornado approaches the area. He's sucked into the tornado and subsequently dropped into the land of Oz, where the inhabitants - including good witch Theodora (Mile Kunis) - believe that Oscar is a great wizard who has arrived to fulfil the prophecy of defeating the Wicked Witch and taking the throne as king. Scared by the responsibility yet disarmed by the piles of gold that victory would offer, Oscar sets out with friendly flying monkey Finley (Zach Braff) and a tiny, fragile girl made of porcelain (Joey King). During his travels, Oscar meets the angelic witch Glinda (Michelle Williams), who recognises that Oscar is a fraudulent wizard but nevertheless believes that he will overthrow the Wicked Witch and restore peace to the land of Oz.

To maintain a sense of fidelity and respect to the '39 feature, Great and Powerful opens in black-and-white with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Once Oscar leaves Kansas and heads into Oz, however, the film suddenly shifts to colourful widescreen, underscoring the beauty of Oz when contrasted against the melancholy of Kansas. Great and Powerful displays multiple other references to Fleming's movie, though screenwriters Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire show commendable subtlety in this area. Also, just like the '39 original, the characters Oscar meets in Oz represent people he knew back home. Finley the monkey is an incarnation of Oscar's showbiz partner (whom he actually refers to as a trained monkey at one stage), the china doll represents a disabled girl who asked Oscar to make her walk again, and so on.

This is Raimi's first PG-rated motion picture, but this doesn't mean the Evil Dead director has gone soft on us. Although the film is a fantasy aimed at kids, it has a dark and edgy side, and some scenes towards the climax are surprisingly scary for a kiddie movie. Eventually, the Wicked Witch of the West emerges, transforming into the iconic green-skinned evil hag that has scared kids for generations. This new incarnation of the Wicked Witch is a home run and will creep out a new generation of children. Most agree that the biggest flaw of Burton's Alice in Wonderland was the fact that it climaxed with a medieval battle in the vein of Narnia. Luckily, Raimi does not fall victim to this malarkey; Oz closes on a superlatively creative note, with Oscar facing off against the witches using his showmanship instead of weapons. It's a wonderful sequence brimming with humour, and it's the perfect close for this story. However, Oz runs too long; clocking in at over two hours, it feels like ten or fifteen minutes could've been trimmed from the final product. That said, the Spider-Man director never loses control of the pace, keeping the proceedings zipping along and always ensuring an impressive set piece is right around the corner.

Raimi's filmmaking sensibilities forbade him from spilling over into lazy digital effects overload. Oz is coated in CGI, yet actual sets supplement the digital trickery, and, as a result, it's hard to tell where the live-action photography ends and the digital effects begin. For the most part, the CGI is highly impressive, bordering on photo-realistic. Most impressive is the little china girl, who seems to be truly alive and is imbued with a soul despite being entirely digital. The 3D presentation is highly satisfying, too. Raimi is a 3D sceptic, and was reluctant about the idea of making the film with an additional dimension. But lo and behold, this is easily one of the greatest uses of the format to date. The sense of depth is astonishing, and the land of Oz looks real in three dimensions. Raimi also has a bit of fun with the medium, hurling a few things at the screen in an effective fashion. Trust me, it's worth shelling out a few extra dollars to experience the film in 3D.

Franco was not first in line for the title role - Robert Downey Jr. and Johnny Depp were initially in talks - but the actor hits it out of the park. He's a charming performer, possessing a sense of honesty and humanity that renders him watchable and easy to root for. He looks the part, too. However, it's his co-stars who steal the spotlight. Scrubs star Braff ably handles a lot of amusing quips and one-liners, displaying great comic timing despite spending most of his time as an animated monkey. King, meanwhile, is superb. She's cute and believable as the china girl without becoming cloying, and her emotional depth is stunning. As the witches, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams all hit their marks, especially the amiable Williams, who shares wonderful chemistry with Franco. Also of note is Tony Cox, toning down his language but otherwise embodying his marvellous angry dwarf persona (as seen in Bad Santa and Me, Myself & Irene).

Despite its strengths, Oz can never quite overcome the most glaring issue that's faced the picture since its inception: It does not quite feel essential. The whole hook of the 1939 Wizard of Oz is that it's ambiguous as to whether or not the entire thing was a dream. And while L. Frank Baum wrote numerous Oz novels, Great and Powerful is marketed as a prequel to the '39 picture, destroying the ambiguity. Did we really need to see the origins of the wizard for another "reboot" franchise? Probably not, but Raimi and his crew do a fine job, nevertheless. The filmmaker does not cruise on autopilot for the sake of a paycheque. Instead, Raimi injects the flick with honest effort and personality, mounting a genuinely satisfying family film bursting with enchantment and excitement, even if it's uneven with narrative and pacing.

6.8/10

Franco? Kunis? Weisz?! Williams?!? Raimi? How did it all go so extremely wrong? The perpetually moving follow up to the magical 1939 film falls so flat that even though there are many call backs (and set ups) to the original, it is hard to draw any actual connection between the two. Thematically it fails, scenically it fails, structurally it fails, atmospherically it fails, characterization it fails, motivationally it fails, in fact, there is very little this film does right. The entire film is a cauldron of ideas that if any one of them were thought out and energy was devoted to them could have made a very interesting film. Yet with a film that structurally has two first acts, a very anti climactic ordeal with a pathetic second act climax and an elixir so stolen from the first film that it's painful to watch, originality is thrown out the window for a script that felt conjured up in a studio executive's office (the true wicked witches). Franco, actually is not charming (something I have always felt he had going for him). Kunis is delightful until her character is asked to make a major personality change with no real motivation. After this turn every single line is performed with the quality of a high school play. Weisz is alright, but again the characterization gives her nothing to work with. Williams is the only bright spot and tries really hard to give light to the very clunky lines given to her. Raimi's direction is some of the worst I've ever seen from the director (comparative to Spiderman 3). I think he's a director who the higher his budgets the less creative he allows himself to be. The CG is distractingly bad. I wasn't expecting a realistic looking world going into Oz, yet every shot looks so superimposed that you can nearly feel the treadmill under the actors feet. I really wanted to like this, not comparatively to the original, not as a serious effort but more as a children's film, but it's just so bad. I'm truly sorry for those wanting to recapture the magic, but revisit the original and save your money.

D rating or 1 1/2 stars out of 5