Following up on his “Spiderman” trilogy and taking cues from Disney’s massive 2010 hit “Alice in Wonderland,” Sam Raimi’s new movie “Oz the Great and Powerful” is a grand, sweeping and visually stunning prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” but is weakened by a clichéd plot and dull characters.
The movie’s main character, Oscar Diggs (aka Oz), played by James Franco, is introduced to us in the movie’s opening black-and-white, academy ratio scenes as a womanizer and charlatan. A magician at a circus, he dazzles audiences with his tricks but falters when faced with issues that matter, such as a girl asking him to use his magical powers to fix her legs and a circus strongman who attempts to attack him for trying to steal his woman. Fleeing from said strongman, Oz escapes into a hot air balloon and, through some unexplained magical tornado, is transported to the colorful, wide-screen world of Oz.
The shot that reveals Oz to us — pulling back from Franco’s face in the hot air balloon and panning out into the lush and craggy landscape of Oz while transitioning from black-and-white and academy ratio to vivid colors and a 2.35:1 ratio — is one of the most gripping and magical moments of the film. Unfortunately, it’s downhill from there.
In the Land of Oz, Oz learns that his appearance was foreshadowed in a prophecy by the previous “Wizard of Oz,” saying that a new wizard would arrive and defeat the Wicked Witch ruling the land. Not bothered by the imperialist overtones of the prophecy, Oz accepts the mission. Since this is presumably difficult, the script equips him with a few sidekicks, most notably an unfunny flying monkey dressed as a bellhop and voiced by Zack Braff and a China doll who is able to quickly get over the fact that her hometown (China Town) and everyone she knows was destroyed by the Wicked Witch. Both characters will probably make Disney a lot of money in toy sales, but could probably be cut from the movie’s script without too much trouble.
There are three witches in the movie, and, without spoiling which is the evil one, you should know that Mila Kunis as Theodora is absolutely horrible. She’s entirely miscast, presumably only in the movie because some Disney executives decided it needed an A-lister, and entirely unable to find the right tone for a scene. When she is supposed to be glowering, she merely looks like she isn’t paying attention to whoever’s speaking to her. And when she is supposed to be furious, her shrieks of rage are hilariously pathetic. Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz, both excellent actors, fill out the underwritten roles of the other two witches as best they can, but don’t be surprised to see Kunis nominated for a Razzie next year.
Inconsistent character behavior is a problem that plagues the movie throughout. Bill Cobbs and Tony Cox both play native Ozzians who help Oz with his plan to defeat the witch. They are resistant to help him, believing he is only helping them because he wants to become king and take Emerald City’s gold, but their resistance or helpfulness seems to shift based on whatever’s most convenient for the plot to move forward. Zack Braff’s flying monkey, too, recognizes Oz as a fake and either berates him or helps him anyway based on whatever’s most helpful to the plot.
But for all its faults, “Oz the Great and Powerful” is a fun movie to watch. The Land of Oz is beautifully animated, and the actual set pieces and costumes are elaborate and creative. Its self-reflexive revelry in the nature of illusion is shallow, but the inventive visuals overshadow all meaning, or lack of it, having something interesting to watch in every scene. If only good movie scripts could be made with CGI.