Oz the Great and Powerful

A prequel to L. Frank Baum’s Oz series, Oz the Great and Powerful follows Oscar Diggs (James Franco) as he’s swept to the mystical land of Oz in a hot-air balloon – with the movie detailing the character’s exploits in the magical realm and his eventual efforts at defeating the series’ villainous Wicked Witch. There’s little doubt that Oz the Great and Powerful fares best in its lengthy black-and-white prologue, as filmmaker Sam Raimi has infused this stretch, which revolves around Oscar’s swindling antics as a traveling magician, with an old-fashioned feel that proves impossible to resist and certainly establishes the film as an ideal companion piece to 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. The delightfully retro atmosphere persists right up until Oscar lands in Oz, with the remainder of the movie containing a palpably contemporary feel that’s reflected in Raimi’s use (and occasional overuse) of computer-generated effects (ie nothing here feels especially real). The movie’s mild success, then, is a result of both Raimi’s lighthearted touch and the effectiveness of the performances, with, in terms of the latter, Franco’s impressively charismatic turn as the central character perpetuating the film’s fun, easygoing vibe. (The supporting cast, which includes Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, and Zach Braff, is just as good, although Mila Kunis, as Theodora, seems somewhat out of her depth here.) And although Raimi has peppered the proceedings with a number of engaging sequences – eg Oscar’s encounter with a chatty porcelain doll – Oz the Great and Powerful, saddled with a 130 minute running time, often feels as though it’s been padded-out to an almost unreasonable degree, with the rather tedious buildup to the finale certainly standing as the most obvious example of the movie’s bloated sensibilities. The finale, when it finally does roll around, does manage to recapture the magic of the movie’s opening, and it’s ultimately clear that Oz the Great and Powerful fares somewhat better than most similarly-themed, geared-at-kids big-budget fare.

**1/2 out of ****