Oz The Great and Powerful

[kayd_mon]

I went to see this with my wife. I thought it was ok, she hated it. I thought it worked well when it was trying to be funny, but Mila Kunis as the Wicked Witch of the West is one of the poorer casting choices of recent memory.

The whole movie made me wish I was watching Wicked instead.

Anyone else see it?

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

We saw it. It was mildly entertaining. I was glad it stayed with a mostly fairy-tale/light-hearted tone; even when it got "dark" it avoided being unnecessarily grim 'n' gritty.

However a lot of the writing, editing, and pacing, especially in the first part in Oz (after he lands in the river and meets Theodora) was super-awkward and could have used a lot of rewriting. It wasn't as bad later on, but there was still a lot of it, and it bugged me.

I also really wish it had ended after the big confrontation in the courtyard, rather than tacking on that duel between, um, them two witches. It just felt like, "Look! We have to have a big fight scene here." I thought that the stuff in the courtyard handled the climax just fine.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I found it hilarious how one of the producers said he liked it because there aren't many fairy tales with a strong male lead. Dude's not an Aladdin fan, I guess.

 

[Mindfire]

I found it hilarious how one of the producers said he liked it because there aren't many fairy tales with a strong male lead. Dude's not an Aladdin fan, I guess.

He has a point. Most fairy tales are marketed to girls. Even Aladdin in a sense. Oh wait, did you mean the Disney version or the original tale?

 

[Feo Takahari]

He has a point. Most fairy tales are marketed to girls. Even Aladdin in a sense. Oh wait, did you mean the Disney version or the original tale?

At risk of going into a tangent, if we stretch the definition of fairy tale (which we need to do to count the Oz books), Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" also has an interesting and sympathetic male lead. And though they're not exactly protagonists, I the titular Beast, Eric from The Little Mermaid, and Flynn from Tangled are all awesome Disney men. This movie is nothing new in that regard.

P.S. Forgot Peter Pan and Mowgli.

 

[Mindfire]

At risk of going into a tangent, if we stretch the definition of fairy tale (which we need to do to count the Oz books), Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" also has an interesting and sympathetic male lead. And though they're not exactly protagonists, I the titular Beast, Eric from The Little Mermaid, and Flynn from Tangled are all awesome Disney men. This movie is nothing new in that regard.

P.S. Forgot Peter Pan and Mowgli.

Peter Pan I'll give you. Although really it's Wendy's story if you think about it. Not sure I'd call Hunchback or Jungle Book "fairy tales". Doesn't "fairy tale" imply that there has to be some magic involved? As for the others, Eric was a bit bland. I don't remember anything about him. Flynn and the Beast (whose name is Adam apparently) were awesome however. Although I personally thought the Beast was more interesting before he became human again. If I'd been in charge, I would have given him the ability to change forms at will or something rather than just turning human again.

 

[Ophiucha]

I don't know if we can call Snow White or Sleeping Beauty stories with 'strong female leads' when the titular female characters spent the climax of their stories in a coma. Also, it seems a bit... wrong to use The Wizard of Oz as the base for a male-headed fantasy when L. Frank Baum rather intentionally wrote the original novels with female protagonists and was pretty feminist for a man in the early 1900s. It'd be one thing to take one of the Brothers Grimm stories and genderbend it (or just adapt one of the numerous fairy tales that did have a male protagonist), but to take something that had intentional feminist themes and tell the story of one of the male protagonists seems a bit dodgy.

Regarding the movie itself, I find the CGI to be a bit of an eyesore to watch after a while, but each individual element is quite gorgeous. It's the sort of movie I'd rather look at than watch. And I love the little china doll girl.

 

[kayd_mon]

The CGI characters were great. James Franco was funny. The witches were... Well as I said, they should have just made a film version of Wicked instead. None of the witches were even close to their comparable renditions in Wicked.

 

[Mindfire]

I never liked the idea of Wicked. It annoys me when people take villains and try to make them into antiheroes.

 

[kayd_mon]

I agree that it can be annoying, it's just that Wicked was done so well, and the music is great. I can't speak for the book, though.

 

[Ireth]

I agree that it can be annoying, it's just that Wicked was done so well, and the music is great. I can't speak for the book, though.

The book was okay, if much darker than the musical, and a bit overloaded with completely gratuitous sex. ._.

 

[Mindfire]

The book was okay, if much darker than the musical, and a bit overloaded with completely gratuitous sex. ._.

O.O Do not want.

 

[JediKnightMuse]

I saw Oz the Great and Powerful Wednesday night. I enjoyed it, but I didn't absolutely fall in love with it. And when I came home and posted about it on Facebook, one of my friends commented and said it'd made him uncomfortable. I asked why and he said there were a lot of historical references that he wasn't comfortable with and there was something with racism. I didn't really notice any of those things right off, but I'm not the biggest fan of history so I don't usually notice those kind of things right away.

I didn't think James Franco was the best choice for Oz. I mean, he did okay, but I was kind of like...meh. Michele Williams did a good job as Glinda. The other two witches...eh. There were certain parts where you could tell, once she became green, that Theodora wasn't the actual actress and other parts where you could.

I think my favorite characters were actually the little china girl, Glinda and the flying monkey.

I grew up watching Wizard of Oz over and over and over again (seriously, I think I could act it out if I REALLY wanted to) but for some reason I never read the actual books, so I look at Oz the Great and Powerful from a movie!Oz perspective. Though I have seen Wicked twice (haven't finished reading the book...I started to before the musical came out but I found it hard to get into. I really want to finish reading it, if only so that I know what happens in the book version). I absolutely LOVE Wicked as a musical and I'm dying for them to come out with the movie, which is supposed to happen in the next year or two.

I don't know. Will I want Oz on DVD? Yes. Is it my new favorite movie? No. I'd probably give it somewhere between a B and a C, honestly. There were certain parts that were awesome, such as the art, but certain parts that weren't so awesome.

One thing I did like that was really minor was the fact that Oz was talking to Annie, who was marrying John Gale, which meant that she was Dorothy's mom. I mean, I know they probably did that on purpose since it's a prequel and all that, but I caught that reference immediately and went .

 

[Androxine Vortex]

I liked it but it wasn't great. I thought the dialogue was really, really cheesy. Especially when the one witch said something along the lines of, "So much good here....it sickens me!" I actually thought that the acting was really bad and the plot progressed way too fast when he came into Oz. He met the girl in red (forget her name) and within a few scenes later they are talking about becoming King and Queen together and kissing. After the middle point of the movie and things picked up it was a really good film. The ending was really good and there were a lot of funny scenes. Some scenes you could tell were made just for 3D effect which I always find dumb. But overall I liked it. If I had to grade it it would get a B. The scenery was gorgeous too!

 

[JediKnightMuse]

the plot progressed way too fast when he came into Oz. He met the girl in red (forget her name) and within a few scenes later they are talking about becoming King and Queen together and kissing.

Yes! I noticed this, too, and I forgot about it when I initially saw the movie. But I agree, that part went way too fast. Oz didn't even think twice about the fact that this random girl wanted to be his queen and wanted him to be a wizard. He just instantly thought about the power it would bring him.

 

[Nightender]

Oz wasn't a likable guy. I think that's on purpose.

James Franco did well enough in the role, but this was an odd movie since I wasn't supposed to like the main character at first, possibly because he didn't like himself.

I think the China Girl was the most amazing character in the movie. Her journey is complex, emotional, and you feel for her in every way. When she's hurt you want to cry for sorrow, when she feels joy, you want to cry for joy. I just loved her and I think she's the best example of why this is Sam Raimi's most emotional movie.

The most interesting thing about this movie for me is the gathering of the core heroes at the end. This usually happens in some way in fantasy movies, but in this one something very different happened. Both the head tinkerer and Nook, the herald are played by African-American actors. It wasn't just a big gathering of white people for once, but a collection of diverse characters from all parts of Oz (and Earth). Just something that interested me. It took time for me to realize that since the characters present all played a vital role in making sure everything worked out well for the good people of Oz.