Review of Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) by Stuart M — 07 Dec 2013

Rather underwhelming. James Franco was alright as the lead and I loved Zach Braff as the flying monkey, but everyone else was pretty rubbish. Even Rachel Weisz, one of my favorite actresses, is bland and unmemorable due to a poorly written part. Mila Kunis just as much so, although her role should have given her an ideal chance to ham it up. These two are evil witches for God's sake. They should be able to provide some entertainment. But no, they're just sort of there. They rarely even cackle or give evil villain monologues. Their character motivation is apparently just that they're evil because they ate enchanted apples that remove their ability to feel. Or something? I wasn't clear on that since they tried to treat Mila as tragic, when in fact she simply switched from being an interesting character to a stereotype for no reason. I mean, there was a reason but her reaction was completely random. And I was really looking forward to a relatively complex character. Whoops.

The film relies too much on recreating the '30s camp of the original. It combines this look with cgi to make a world that's utterly unconvincing but clearly isn't meant to be. Fantasy has moved on a lot in seventy years and I'm not sure how much this phony world appeals to modern audiences.