Oz The Great and Powerful

Teenage angst has paid off well, now I’m bored, old, and still broke. So I figure that since I am getting old it might be time to prepare myself for doing things that old people do; like marrying someone who’s really young, buying me a few more years before worrying about having kids and my life officially being over. You really can’t blame me for this strategy as Ted Danson laid the foundation for this kind of thinking in Cheers; until he fell for the flat chested Diane for some strange reason. But my first order of business is to actually start liking kid’s movies again, and by kids movies I mean anything that’s not R rated. So I ventured out to see Oz The Great and Powerful starring an only half baked James Franco. 

This movie serves as the back story to the actual wizard of the make believe land of Oz. Sam Raimi of Spiderman fame starts the 3D movie in 8mm black and white footage to let us know that we are in fact in the real world and back in a time before Technicolor existed. It’s really distracting and you honestly could care less about what’s happening on screen but the gist of it is is that James Franco plays this low life magician in a traveling circus whose tricks have finally gotten him into trouble and he has to escape via a hot air balloon. He somehow ends up in a tornado in Kansas and  after pleading with God to spare him in exchange for him do something great, he winds up in the colorful and 3D land of Oz.

Once he crash lands into a pond, we are immediately introduced to quite a few interesting and beautiful creatures, one of which happens to be Mila Kunis. This is where you wish that this was not a G rated movie, because Franco who after being saved, immediately reverts back to slime mode and seduces the young and innocent good witch Kunis. During their introduction Kunis informs him that he is the fulfillment of the prophesy, as the great and powerful wizard who comes from the sky and saves them from the wicked witch. Franco, knowing that he is just a simple con man plays along for a bit so that he can get more answers about this mysterious land he is in. We eventually learn that he is to defeat the evil witch and once he does he can then claim his rightful crown as the ruler of Oz. He agrees to give it a try because there is a lot of gold at stake but along the way we are introduced to a few characters that will aid him in his journey and will ultimately lead to him either changing into the man he promised he’d become or continuing to be the low life we were initially introduced to. He is in a race against time (yes I just typed that and I’m not proud of it) as he must decide which witches he can trust. 

I’ll leave the rest of the story for you to experience on your own but in my view the reason this movie works is because of the writing. Every one of the actors in it gives a mediocre to ok performance but it’s a children’s movie so it’s kind of hard to give memorable and moving effort if you spend 80% of the time talking to a cgi china doll or talking monkey. I guess John Revolta was able to pull it off while interacting with a talking baby Bruce Willis but please, that is acting royalty we’re talking about. The story is good and there are quite a few life lessons discretely being taught as you move along. You also cant help but root for Franco to finally shape up and become the good guy so these wonderful  tinkers, winkies, and witches can be saved. 

There’s enough cool cgi and clever use of non violent action to keep you entertained. And is doesn’t hurt that Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz are on the screen quite a bit. The entire time you really do believe that Franco spent his down time smoking roaches and raiding the buffet table but he holds it together long enough to film a 2 hour movie. Now I know parents want to keep their kids occupied for as long as possible but this may run just a little too long for them. But hey, it’s better than chasing them around the house picking up the puke and poop that they leave behind. I don’t know, I assume that this is what children do. Kind of makes them sound like untrained pets…man it’s so obvious that I’m not settling down for a while. I rate this movie as FRESH!