Oz the Great and Powerful: A Review

I watched Oz the Great and Powerful last week, and while I wouldn't call the movie terrible, I'm certainly not going to call it good. I wouldn't even recommend it for someone who's bored. It's definitely a movie, and there are some good bits, but mostly there are bits where James Franco is just James Franco.

Let's take a look.

The things I liked: I thought Zach Braff did a good job. Even though the monkey effects weren't amazing, I thought the character was interesting. He is a driving force in changing Oz's ways from being a selfish son of a bitch to the kind-hearted fraud (a supposed good thing). He's got heart and humor, and then mysteriously disappears from any key moments as soon as Glinda is introduced. I was disappointed because the slave/master-friend/friend dynamic was a lot more interesting than the "I think this girl is pretty and I hope I can impress her" one.

As far as effects go, they were shitty. But the porcelain girl looked great. There was a nice tactile quality to the character and Joey King was a fantastic voice actor, bringing the character full circle. We need to get this thirteen-year-old more work! She destroyed Franco in the acting realm! (Not that it's hard). Monkey and Porcelain Girl were the two best parts of this movie, and without them the entire thing would have been a complete bust (even with Rachel Wiesz, but more on this later).

Every twenty minutes or so we'd get a little taste of the Raimi charm. He'd toss in a signature shot with a skewed filter on the lens, or a quick camera movement to disorient the audience. Every strange shot he was able to put in made me yell, "Raimi!" I just wish Disney would have let him put more of himself into this movie.

The black and white 4X3 segment at the beginning was well done. I liked the way they used this to move us into the story and mythology of Oz. It was a highlight, getting my hopes up for the inevitable  letdown of a movie that followed.

 (Interesting note: Warner Bros. actually owns most of the iconic elements from the 1939 picture, which made tying this film in with the other story a bit more difficult. They were not able to use the ruby red slippers or the specific green for the Wicked Witch.)

Now, what I didn't like: James Franco, of course. I'd like to make something clear, though. I don't think Franco is a terrible actor (even if he can be at times). I liked him in 127 Hours and Pineapple Express. What I think Franco is terrible at is being a human being. He's arrogant, fake, and unprofessional. Sadly, shitty qualities like these can bleed onto the screen when he's trying to act. When you watch a movie like Oz you can understand why his professor gave him a D. There's no disputing the fairness of this grade when you have evidence like Oz the Great and Powerful. We don't have Franco in Milk here, rather we have another Rise of the Planet of the Apes (AKA: the worst). It's unfortunate considering there are two extremely talented actresses. Rachel Wiesz and Michelle Williams do what they do best: act the shit out of their roles. The problem is because of the good job they're doing, we can see how bad of a job Franco and Mila Kunis are doing. The conflict in quality leads each scene to be weighted unevenly, thus making it obvious to the audience that we are just watching a movie. There isn't any magic to pull us in emotionally, and in the end, this is the major flaw to the picture.

I give this movie a C-