by Brett Parker
The Wizard of Oz is such a universally beloved classic that there are those who find the existence of Oz the Great and Powerful, a big budget special effects-ridden prequel to the classic tale, to be something of a sacrilege. As for me, I don’t mind it so much. Author L. Frank Baum wrote 14 novels about the land of Oz, proving that mythical landscapes are usually too vast and fruitful to be limited to one story. What if Tolkien put Middle-Earth to rest after The Hobbit? And those that accuse the new film of being a transparent excuse to roll out bloated CGI candy for cash forget that the original Wizard of Oz was also a display for Hollywood bells and whistles of its time (ponder when Technicolor was new and musical numbers were the norm). The allure of the Oz universe mixed with director Sam Raimi’s adolescent need to deliver a popcorn genre’s giddy jollies had me sorta, kinda looking forward to the movie in the vain of growing an unexpected craving for a hot fudge sundae.
So it’s somewhat disheartening to the child inside of me that I found Oz the Great and Powerful to be a disappointment. While the rainbow-soaked visuals give your eyes something to do and star James Franco’s reeking luncay is an entity to behold as usual, the plot turns out to be pretty flimsy stuff. It’s obvious the film is pitching the story at a children’s tale level, but when you consider the richness of the original classic story, this film’s vapidness truly grows unnerving.
The film opens in 1905 Kansas where we meet Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a sideshow con artist who uses slight of hand tactics and grand illusions to fool normal folks into thinking he is a powerful magician. Aside from being a calculating huckster, we also learn that Oscar is a heartbreaking cad who has torn through a string of beauties, including the kind-hearted country girl, Annie (Michelle Williams). Upon discovering that one of the circus strongman wants to hurt him for flirting with his wife, Oscar races to escape unharmed by hopping into a hot air balloon and flying away. Yet seconds after doing so, the balloon comes up against a deadly tornado and Oscar gets sucked right up into the center of it.
Instead of dying, Oscar discovers that he’s been mysteriously transported to a magical land called Oz, a bizarre and beautiful hallucinatory landscape filled with singing munchkins, flying monkeys, dark forests, giant bubbles, and a yellow brick road to help guide him around. The first person he meets in this strange land is a beautiful witch named Theodora (Mila Kunis) who believes that he is a prophesied powerful wizard who has been sent to save a kingdom from doom. Theodora takes Oscar to an extravagant Emerald City and introduces him to her witch sister, Evanora (Rachel Weisz), who informs him that all the riches in the city will be his if he travels to the darker part of the land and kills a Wicked Witch. Realizing he’s out of his depth but yearning for endless gold, Oscar decides to take the mission.
Guided by a talking winged monkey (voiced by Zach Braff) and a tiny porcelain girl (Joey King), Oscar travels to the darker forests of Oz and discovers not a scary, wicked witch, but a beautiful, pure witch named Glinda (Michelle Williams). Since Glinda is a dead ringer for the sweet-natured girl Oscar knew from Kansas, he suspects that she may not be the evil witch he was led to believe and that the sisters back in the Emerald City may be up to something sinister. This all leads to revealing motives and an epic struggle that will cause Oscar to rely on his wits and tricks to convince an entire kingdom that he has what it takes to be a mighty wizard.
With all the dreamlike sights and capable actors on display, you keep wishing that the script would do evocative things with them, but things are kept achingly simple-minded and devoid of such things as complexity and creativity. It’s a mystery why this written-from-scratch prequel didn’t dive more into Baum’s other Oz novels, which went to richer and darker places than the first story did. Walter Murch’s Return to Oz, the 1985 sequel to Wizard of Oz which followed Baum’s novels much more closely, may have been too disturbing to become beloved family entertainment, but it was uncompromising and fascinating in the way it explored more troubling depths within Oz’s logistics. I don’t feel like it’d be too daunting to find a middle ground between children’s entertainment and edgier mythic drama, and it would certainly make Oz the Great and Powerful miles more fulfilling than it actually is.
That’s not to say that potential isn’t hinted at in the film’s membrane. One of the many pleasures of the Oz universe is how it’s an exuberant fantasy playground to work out human morals and values. The eventual trajectory of Oscar’s journey of redemption evokes neat ideas regarding realizing one’s potential, the scrappy resourcefulness of oddball simpletons, the strength of ordinary people when they unite in a crisis situation, and the salvation one can find in camaraderie. If only the screenplay by Mitchell Kapner (The Whole Nine Yards) and David Lindsay-Abaire (Rise of the Guardians) knew how to make these things pop with emotional power. Plus another reason this prequel is so disappointing is because for some cinephiles, seeing the Evil Dead filmmaker at the helm of an Oz film is something of a beautiful oddball triumph. One review pointed out that this flick has more in common with Army of Darkness than the original Wizard of Oz. While some may find that infuriating, I find that some kind of awesome. Raimi has always been a director in love with the simple, primal pleasures of popcorn movies, especially their corniness (which I mean as the sincerest compliment). As a beloved fan of all things Oz, you can certainly sense Raimi’s childlike joy in dishing out his merry set pieces, especially in scenes where monstrous threats lunge at the camera with some of that old Evil Dead pluck. The enthusiasm is certainly there, it’s just a shame a smarter screenplay wasn’t there to guide Raimi through his candy-coated passion.
While some people raised their eyebrows at the casting of James Franco as the man who would become the wonderful Wizard of Oz, I must admit that I was looking forward to the performance. Franco’s puckish nature and curated weirdness seems like the perfect fit for a calculating conjurer in a mythical kiddie land and I feel like original choice Robert Downey, JR. would’ve been too overqualified to put yet another spin on his whole irreverent-oddball-seeks-redemption act he curated to magnificence in Iron Man (while were at it, I think Bruce Campbell, a Raimi all-star who turns up in his trademark cameo here, would’ve made a phenomenal Oz). In practice, Franco isn’t as commanding or possessive in the role as you wish he could be, but his naturally oozing strangeness easily makes him the most interesting thing in the whole movie. By the time he reaches his eventual destination as a gigantic floating head surrounded by smoke and flames, I smiled. What’s really a let-down with the cast is seeing some of the most beautiful and talented of today’s actresses being wasted in watered-down witch roles. Weisz and Williams look stranded in roles that are pure cardboard and Kunis is especially a gigantic fumble. While her radiant eyes are certainly the most memorable visual from this trip to Oz, the eventual nature of her role has her overselling it way too much. It’s annoying to ponder that she probably developed laryngitis from her performance. And speaking of vocals, I found it extremely amusing that Zach Braff, voicing a talking monkey, sounds uncannily like Billy Crystal.
Lord knows this movie barely had any shot at toppling the original Wizard of Oz, but as much as I tried to conjure up my inner-child like the kidnapped tyke from Poltergeist, I honestly couldn’t make myself care that much about anything happening on the screen. The best thing I can say about Oz the Great and Powerful is that I found it more enjoyable than Tim Burton’s misguided Alice in Wonderland, which more or less demonstrates the same plot and idea. It’s been reported that another Oz adventure is in the works and I hope that this time the writers delve further into Baum’s novels and realize that a lot more was going on than just cutesy kiddie stuff. And if for some reason James Franco can’t return for the lead role, they better get Bruce Campbell on the phone immediately.
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