Movie Review: "Oz The Great And Powerful"

"Oz The Great And Powerful": B+.  My great personal dilemma: Do I let my dislike for James Franco result in my passing up this movie, even though the original 1939 film, The Wizard Of Oz, is one of my all time favorites? I decided "no," and it's a good thing for the St. Louis Park Mann Theater that I did. I was the only patron in the viewing audience yesterday for the 4:15 matinee.

The new movie is a prequel to the original, focusing on how "the man behind the curtain" became the Wizard of Oz. The story opens in 1905 Kansas at a countryside carnival. There are painted ladies, jugglers, magicians, acrobats, muscular barbell lifters and barkers, all trying to entice the gullible customers to lay down their money. One of the central figures in this motley circus crew is Oscar "Oz" Diggs (Franco), who makes his living as a charlatan, with slight of hand magic and super powers that captivate the audience. Offstage, he is always on the make, trying to seduce women by giving them a cheap music box with a phony story about it being a family heirloom which he's been saving to present to the right girl. It turns out one of those girls is the significant other of the barbell lifter, who storms into Oz' trailer to tear him apart. Oz escapes in a hot air ballon which gets caught up in a cyclone. Of course, he ends up crashing in the Land of Oz.

One of the strong points of the movie is the beautiful special effects which portray the strange new land as unworldly, in a good way. There are splendorous mountains, rivers, trees and flowers, with the strangest wildlife one can imagine. It isn't long before Oz encounters Theodora (Mila Kunis), who gives him the lowdown on his surroundings and steers him toward the yellow brick road, which, as we all know, leads to the Emerald City. Along the way we are treated to a flying monkey named Finley and a talking miniature china doll who escort Oz, munchkins, witches, and other animate and inanimate objects which remind us of the 1939 film. Theodora is one of those witches, but Oz doesn't seem to mind. He pulls the old music box sham on her, a move which will eventually get him into trouble.

Theodora's sister is Evanora (Rachel Weisz), another witch whose evil mind is revealed early on to the viewers. The counter balance is the Good Witch of the South, Glinda (Michelle Williams). (Whether Theodora is good or evil is something that does not immediately become apparent.) Glinda briefs Oz on the history of the kingdom's people, and how they have been anticipating the return of a wizard to take the place of her dearly departed grandfather. Glinda knows Oz is a scam artist and not really a wizard, but what the people need now to satisfy their hopes and dreams is any kind of wizard, be it real or fake. Glinda figures that what the people don't know won't hurt them. Oz' true identity will be his and Glinda's little secret. Once Glinda shows Oz the treasure trove of the kingdom's gold coins, he is all in.

How do the forces of good manage against the forces of evil? Will Oz ever get back to Kansas? How does Theodora, to whom Oz has bestowed a music box, react when Glinda moves in on her guy? How does Oz' mastery of prestidigitation come into play? Is Oz really great and powerful?

I particularly liked the way the film honors the original, and how everything meshes with and sets up the continuation of the story as told in the '39 film. The parallels and links are obvious: the good and bad witches, the flying monkeys and munchkins, the yellow brick road, the naivety of the common folk with their unquestioned faith in the wizard, and the use of special effects, particularly colors, fires and explosions. Not to be overlooked are the friends the protagonist meets along the way. In the original, it's Dorothy befriending the scarecrow, the tin man and the cowardly lion. The new prequel doesn't top that, but we do have Oz engaging Theodora, Finley and the china doll as he makes his way.

In 1995 one of the hot pop culture topics was how the music from Pink Floyd's album Dark Side Of The Moon seemed to be synchronized with the video of the original Wizard Of Oz. The album came out in 1973, thirty-four years after the movie. I wonder if any of today's music artists have started working on an album to synch with the new prequel. I hope so; I probably don't have thirty-four more years to wait.