Much like the disappointment and confusion Dorothy felt when discovering the Wizard was a fraud, the audience will deflate when pulling back the curtain on this picture. Tampering with classics almost never pays off; it was a lesson Disney did not appear to have learned with Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Acquiring Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Evil Dead) to direct was a good start, but it would seem that it was all downhill from there.
Buzz and chatter pre-criticized the over-abundance of CG used in this film, but ultimately it was the writing that shut down the show. Screenwriters David Lindsay-Abaire and Mitchell Kapner did their best to derive enough from its 1939 counterpart without making the film feel like a complete carbon copy, but filled the script with flat dialog and hokey jokes – which they would stretch as far as it would go. They were able to squeeze in some good moments too, but they come few and far between to save the movie. Writing department aside, the makeup and costume department suffered from the Tin-Man’s dilemma: no heart. One gets the impression the motto of the entire crew was “Well, that’s good enough. Roll film.” This sentiment even carried over to the acting. Michelle Williams (Glinda) is the only one who holds her own consistently. The rest of the cast {James Franco, Rachel Weisz, Mila Kunis} has their shining moments, though they are fleeting.
OZ does have its fun parts, but for fans that loved the original since childhood, and are looking to pass on the appreciation, it would probably suffice to do so from home when the film is available for rent.
OZ, The Great and Powerful is now playing in theaters everywhere.
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