Franco is Powerful

Oz the Great and Powerful is a March movie. Nothing you’ll remember after the blockbuster season is over. In one of the sequences in the movie it shows off the wonderful world of Oz, when they fly around in a bubble ( play clip). But you keep asking yourself: what’s the point? This is not something that impresses in the year 2013, when we’ve got every Marvel comic world visualized on the big screen. We’ve seen about a dozen of fantasy worlds like this in the last year alone. And standing still while the bubble does all the flying, doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination.

Then there are a couple of witches. You can say what you want about last year’s Snow White and the Huntsman, but Charlize Theron makes Rachel Weisz and Mila Kunis look like two cute little witches trying to do evil. It might have been on purpose, but some of the make-up is just plain awful as well. And when one of them finally does the I’m-so-evil-buhaha laugh, it’s the moment you just stop taking them seriously altogether.

But then there are China Girl and Finley, the flying monkey. Brilliantly played by Joey King and Zach Braff. They actually seem like the only characters that don’t take themselves too seriously. If it wasn’t for these two characters, the movie would’ve been lost. But their interaction with James Franco’s above average lines, makes this movie overcome its cheesiness and actually, at times, become quite clever.

Oz the Great and Powerful is not a movie that warrants a sequel. But it’s a nice filler until the blockbuster madness in May. If anything, it shows Zach Braff can bring his comedy skills to the big screen. So give this man some more material to work with, please. Or a followup to his directorial debut Garden State. That’ll do as well.

filmOA | score

Visuals

8

Locations

8

Dialogs

6

Tone

5

Cast

7

Witches

6

67%

worth the popcorn