The last couple of years I’ve read a lot of complaints about there not being enough originality in Hollywood and that too much sequels and prequels are being made. Personally I never had an issue with them, at least not if the quality of them are good (which I admit isn’t always the case). Oz the Great and Powerful is a prequel to the classic The Wizard of Oz and tells the story of how that wizard ended up in Oz and how he turned into the wizard.
If you have seen the Wizard of Oz you know that the wizard actually isn’t one. It turns out he is actually a magician at a circus, played by James Franco, a womaniser who tries to seduce every assistent and doesn’t mind trying to get more from the girlfriends of other artists at the circus. It is the reason he needs to escape the circus when the strong man wants to get him. He climbs in a ballon and when he enters a tornado he ends up crashing in the land of Oz. He quickly realises he is not in Kansas anymore and meets the witch Theodora (Mila Kunis), a beautiful looking woman who does not match with his idea of witches. She takes him to Emerald city where he meets her sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and gets offered the throne. Thing is though is that he needs to first take the power from another witch (played by Michelle Williams). It is the start of an adventure where not everything is what it seems.
I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this prequel. Not having seen the original Wizard of Oz in years I couldn’t compare it, but it made me want to see it again (which I did and will be the next review). When you see them both you notice that the stories perfectly match up. Some of the same characters are used in both movies, some shots even are exactly the same as the Wizard of Oz (for example the field where you fall asleep). It is a movie which is entertaining for both adults and children. I might actually prefer it to the Wizard of Oz (although I scored them the same). Why? You’ll read that in my review of that movie.
It doesn’t even compare to the original, but I agree it was enjoyable enough.
P.S. I subscribe to your blog and whenever I click the link in my e-mail I always get this error message:
“Apologies, but no results were found for the requested archive. Perhaps searching will help find a related post.”
I can still find the post just by clicking HOME.
It is a different type of movie from a different era and it shows. The old one has its charm, but a lot is very dated now.
Thanks for mentioning that issue. I heard about a problem with incorrect shortened links on Facebook and Twitter, but was unaware this was also the case for email subscriptions. Will take it up with support, because I have not been able to solve the issue yet.
Mark, just did a search again for the issue and I might have found it. Please check tomorrow if you still run into the issue and please let me know.
Have just retested and unfortunately it still is not working. I’ve now found out that’s it is something that needs to be changes by an engineer of the plugin (Jetpack). I understood this is usually picked up fairly quickly, so I’m hoping the links will be ok soon.
Ok, thanks for the info.
Mark, the links should be fine now (at least on Twitter it is), so let me know if the email link is working now as well.
I gave the movie the same score you did, I liked all the references to the classic and the visual side but I thought the script could have been stronger.
Yeah, it could have been a bit stronger…but it was very enjoyable as it was.
Hey, glad you enjoyed this too, Nostra. I haven’t seen the original film but I had a good time with this one, the visuals are gorgeous and I was quite caught up in the story.
You should give the original a chance as well Ruth even though it looks very dated now.
Wow! You scored them the same? You are probably the first person to do that. Brave of you to admit, though.
Truth be told, “The Wizard of Oz”has such cultural heft in the United States that it is tough for anything to compare to it, and tough to actually criticize it.
I’m curious to read your review on “The Wizard” not.
Yeah, I’m not afraid to say that, but I can understand why that movie is so widely loved. The review will be up next week!