Hey folks, sad to say I’m a bit late with my review for Oz The Great And Powerful as due to me having a horrendous dose of “Con Flu”, I’ve been out of action for hitting the big screens and doing my reviews.
But last night I managed to get myself off to Vue Cinemas in Rhyl for one of the four films that I wanted to bring you a bit sooner.
Oz The Great And Powerful: Blazing Minds Film Review
So let me start by saying that Oz The Great And Powerful is not a remake, nor is it a version of “Wicked”, but instead it’s a prequel, of sorts, to the original Wizard of Oz and now we find the Wizard came to Oz and how the witches became what they were.
With some nice nods to the Wizard of Oz thrown in the film is lovely to watch, although there are times you can obviously see that the actors are working with the blue screen for effects, but this aside, Oz The Great And Powerful has all the hallmarks of a Sam Raimi movie. But more on that later.
Now for the purposes of the review I went to see the 3D version and boy was this a treat. The film starts in black and white and in a 4:3 ratio, which is used to good effect with several scenes using the black sides of the screen to throw things at you, keep an eye out for the snow when the hot air balloon is in air.
English: Sam Raimi at the Los Angeles film festival. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
James Franco plays Oz in only a way that Sam Raimi could get him to play it and at times you want to slap him and say “Seriously, treat people with more respect”, but he plays Oz really well, Mila Kunis seems a little under used as Theodora and sometimes she does seem a little lacklustre with the part.
For me I think Rachel Weisz was miscast as Evanora, she just seems out-of-place with the part she has taken on and her scenes do seem a little wooden, a bit like those early scene in The Mummy.
But for me the key moments throughout Oz The Great And Powerful have to be Sam Raimi directing, there are those moments that scream out the Evil Dead, such as fence posts coming at James Franco in the hot air balloon basket, the shifting of the camera with noises in the woods, similar to to those before Ash was taken over in the Evil Dead, also a kind of three stooges with some rather vicious plants and I loved it.
Also the soundtrack, its pure genius, Sami Raimi has joined forces with Danny Elfmann and brought in the magical soundtrack that only Danny can bring to a film, right from the very start before the “Music by” credit comes on, you just know it’s Danny Elfmann.
And yes folks before anyone says it Groovy Bruce himself, the one and only Bruce Campbell even has a section in the film and true to Sam Raimi style Bruce does get a bit of a slapping 😉
As I mentioned earlier the 3D in the earlier part of the film, in Kansas, is very well done and when we get to Oz, that feel of depth is still visible with vibrant colours and the use of almost everything been thrown at the viewer it worked beautifully.
Overall Thoughts For Oz The Great And Powerful
Although the story does sway in parts and some of the effects could have been polished the overall film was a joy to watch, the 2hrs shot by and I loved every minute of it, it’s an interesting idea and great for a little bit of back story to Oz.
This is a film for all ages and I recommend it in 3D, go see it, I know I’ll be seeing it again.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
