Sam Raimi's Oz: The Great and Powerful

March 06, 2013 17:49

In director Sam Raimi's world, wizards are hot and witches are beautiful. Add phantasmagoria to the mix and you get 'Oz: The Great and Powerful'.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures has taken storytelling to a different yellow brick road with this Oz, which comes 74 years after the release of 'The Wizard of Oz'.

Moreover, there's amazing computer imagery on 3D, which surely would have impressed Judy Garland herself. There are flying primates (a monkey and an army of winged baboons), a talking porcelain doll and water fairies. Oh, and singing Munchkins!

It is in fact a realistic thought might be playing in the mind and soul as if being inside Disneyland on a 4D show when the camera took through a forest of giant flowers, falling snowflakes, fluttering butterflies and a steep plunge down a waterfall. The only thing missing was a squirt of water on the face.

Then, there's the all-star cast: James Franco and his megawatt smile, the scary-beautiful Rachel Weisz, the sexy Mila Kunis and the innocent-looking Michelle Williams. Their acting made the fairytale believable.

In the film, Franco plays Oscar Diggs, a shady circus magician from Kansas who ends up in the Land of Oz after his hot air balloon flies straight into a tornado.

It's not long before the fast-talking sham magician meets three witches: Theodora (Kunis), Evanora (Weisz) and Glinda (Williams) who all think he's the wizard saviour whose magical powers can kill the wicked witch. But all he has is charm (unfortunately not the magical kind), a flying monkey who can belt like a cow and a China doll that seems to have a death wish.

In the flurry of fantasy, there are tender moments, comedy and action, in this film. The witches' stunts could could seem weaker if one has been watching too many Harry Potter movies, but overall, this is a film that can cast a spell on us.