Oz the Mediocre and Not-Really that Powerful
| A couple of weeks ago, I went to see Oz the Great and Powerful. It might have been a great movie for children, because as a Disney film it was visually brilliant. It was, however, hard to pay attention to the movie. It was long, drawn out - the story became lifeless and lackluster. The protagonist (Oz, played by James Franco) was not reliable as an identifiable, honest character who grows throughout the story. He was sometimes nice, sometimes not - he seemed like a player who just womanized in the beginning and then didn't really care about Oz until the end when he tried to save it with his parlor tricks. Mila Kunis was over-dramatic and I think better suited for comedy roles. Her costume makeup was awful, (I know she is supposed to be the hideous Wicked Witch) but they could have updated the look for this movie - it looked like cheap green Halloween makeup with prosthetic chin and cheeks. Some of the animation in the set was cool... the jewel-like foliage was interesting. I might have liked the jewel-like foliage because I like shiny things. | Whatever the case, I think the visual effects and style of the film was its strong point, but the overall plot was terrible. I think the movie could have been shortened and the script could have been funnier as well as written to appeal to an older audience in addition to the usual family-friendly crowd. The overblown talk of fairy tales and greatness of the land of Oz was just terribly uninteresting. This movie has no soul, a story with no real development. I think this speaks to the fact that Hollywood can deliver us a beautiful film, but if the story is blasé, the movie is too. Story is king and in this case the story failed to deliver. Lovely set design and animation - I am not going to knock Disney for trying. |
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