Tin Man Reviews

The first of three re-imaginings of beloved, and public domain, childhood stories as something darker and combined with some of-the-moment science-fiction trapping, Tin Man may be the messiest one. But that’s a very small jump, think of the tiniest hurdle that a show pony in training walks over.

 

With The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as the base, someone along the way decided that Blade Runner, The Matrix, and various other fairy tales were needed to add more flavor to the original story. Oh, and it needed to be a prequel in which long-lost siblings reunite, and…. Look, I’ve already stopped caring about the plot, and you probably will too. Tin Man sucks all of the joy, hope, and fun out of its original premise, so why even do it this way at all?

 

The pace is unwieldy, probably from too many disparate elements demanding development and not getting any, and the overall tone is a dirge march into overblown hysterics. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is not a story that demands a Lord of the Rings style heroic quest, nor does it demand so much special effects work. Oz is primarily a sweet, simple story filled with warmth and good humor.

 

Tin Man mistakes overly fussy production choices and special effects overkill with heart and genuine feeling. There’s no solid core here, just a lot of razzle dazzle. And the razzle dazzle is exceptional, no doubt. For a TV budget, these are pretty spectacular and miraculous. 2007 was around the time that television budgets and ambitions grew larger and more complex, as a whole, and Tin Man’s large scale production values reflect that switch. We’re no longer burden with the questionable effects work of Hallmark movies past. If nothing else, Tin Man is nice to look at.

 

Zooey Deschanel does her typical quirky girl shtick here, Alan Cumming seems lost, Neal McDonough gives it more pathos than it deserves, and Kathleen Robertson plays the entire thing for wicked camp. Cumbersome, oh yes, very much so. There’s so much style to burn here that it ends up having a weird cancelling effect on the overall product. 

The main concept was borrowed from 'Wizard of the Oz', but a modernized with the three episode tale. The director is not a stranger to me, because I liked his previous television mini series 'Neverland'. That was another reason why ended up watching this one. As far my observations, this director is very creative because he just takes the original concept as an inspiration and improvises it. Those were really the good work to build something around the original idea and somewhere he overlaps between the two to make a connection. In an understandable way to say, his TV mini series all were kind of unofficial prequels or sequels to the original classic fantasy tales.

DG is a small town waitress that she's not happy to spend her rest of the life there. She always dreamt to escape it in search of a cheerful life. Like a wish come true, one night a storm take her to a land called OZ. It is a paradise, but affected by a magical spell cast by the evil force. She meets the people who suffered from the evil queen's outrage. Later she comes to know the reason she was brought there and her involvement in the ongoing issues in OZ. The present and the past both were simultaneously narrated about what happened and is happening and what should be done to stop the bad things. So the Dg's journey commences accompanied by a few men who help her to travel safe.

I'd shoot you in the heart if I thought you had one.

The film had lots of upgrading items, like it was set in the modern world still the main character hop into the magical world called OZ. Here the OZ is abbreviated from 'Outer Zone'. All the three episodes were so good, each of them had twists at the end. The story was unexpectedly good, the fan of the original tale will definitely love it. The concept of protagonist and antagonist was built on a reasonable plan that will probably satisfy most of us at the end. It can be viewed by all ages. No silly costumes for the characters like from the storybooks. As it was a television product the quality was normal standard.

Of course the technology and other options were easily fetchable, but the filmmaker used all the computer related resources in a limit. It's not like that they can't offer it, but to keep everything simple. I loved everyone's performances. In fact, Kathleen Robertson, who was in a negative role impressed a lot than the Zooey Deschanel. No one had the tough stunts in the movie, but felt that Zooey Deschanel had not comfortable with them. The guest appearance of the original tale was a surprise. Overall, it is the movie, a must see by the 'Wizard of the Oz' fans. A few things you must remember before giving it a try. It was kind of an sci-fi-fantasy, but the story and twists were the highlights.

Loosely based on the Wizard of Oz, Tin Man has a good cast and everything to be enjoyed by the family: a fantastic magical world in which the good sister, DG, has to overpower an evil witch that took possession of her sister Azkadellia; friends (Cain aka Tin Man, Raw, Glitch, Tutor); mad men (The Mystic Man); and the bad guys of course (Zero).

However, this television mini-series in 3 parts is simply too long, 2 parts would have been just fine. It just keeps dragging on and on. The good thing is that there are no useless repetitive scenes; from 1 part to another, the writers didn't feel the need to summarize what happened previously. (Thank you!)

The acting isn't that great, but it works for most of the actors' performances.
The special effects aren't very special either; nothing worth mentioning.

Tin Man is enjoyable, but just drags on too long, which made me long forward to the ending - which was predictable of course.