Oz the Great and Powerful: finally a good reimagination of old tale

Seriously. Lately we had been bombarded with remake of popular children tales. Hansel Gretel. My last outing with Jack and the giants. Now. We had Oz.Oz the Great and Powerful.



This served more like a prequel to the story of Wizard of Oz and Dorothy. James Franco plays Oz, a small town travelling circus magician. While escaping enemies, he was brought by the tornado to the land of Oz. There, to make the story short without giving away too many spoilers, he was involved with the war between a good witch and the evil ones. In the middle of it is the battle to control the Emerald Kingdom. Finally, he managed to outwitted the evil witches and became... the wizard of Oz.



Now, James Franco shines as Oz. Somehow, even though he is this womanizing con man, but with his fake smile, I could not bring myself to hate his character but just love to see him fulfilling his destiny. His face expressions in this whole movie beats the total of Neo's expressions in all the 3 Matrix movies. (Do not mistaken, I totally love Matrix). However, the other 3 witches pale in comparison. Mila Kunis is nice in the beginning as the naive witch, but the chemistry is lacking between Oz. Rachael Weisz looks stunning but is not evil enough. Michelle Williams look too "clean" to the point it became sterile as the good witch. However, the other characters such as the monkey Finley and China Girl make up for the lack of chemistry. They shared some of the movies' funniest lines and moments with Oz.



The CGI looks bit fake, but probably that is what it was intended. Watching it reminded one of Johnny Depp's Alice in Wonderland. Colourful and intentionally cartoonish. The whole movie suffers from uneven pacing. Some moments were simply brilliant. For example, the opening was genius. Using black and white sequence in a 4:3 format and later change to colour and wide screen format once arrived in Oz ... is simply brilliant. Some moments are really funny, usually involving the monkey or china doll. Other moments are just simply average.



However, given its overall impression, I hardly notice the 2 hours passed. Compare with others, this is one of the better re-imagining children's tale.

ratings: 3 poink!
comments: I am a James Franco by now.....