Cinema Sunday: Oz the Great and Powerful

 

Sometimes movies are not watched as a matter of choice.

Frequently a movie is watched because it's on and what the hell, right?

This week's Cinema Sunday is about one such movie.

It was a Saturday evening and everyone in the fam was in the living room of our Fortress of Ineptitude, myself, my wife Andrea, our daughter Randie and our "granddaughter", Rosie the dog.  

I had a number of movie selections to suggest to the assembled fam, recorded on DVR or available on streaming. 

The response to my various suggestions?

• "No, not that one."
• "No, not that one."
• "No, not that one."
• "No, not that one."

Then while I was randomly channel surfing around some our movie channels, we landed on a movie that had just been on a few minutes.

The movie was Oz the Great and Powerful.

And we wound up watching it because it was on and what the hell, am I right? 

We had seen this movie in the theater and my mind was telling me it wasn't that long ago. Nope, been nearly a decade since this movie came out 2013.  

The perception of the passing of time can be very weird. 

So here's the deal with Oz the Great and Powerful. 

Oscar Diggs is a travelling magician, hustler and con artist whose hot air balloon gets sucked up into a tornado where he is deposited into the gloriously colorful Land of Oz.  

Oscar is greeted by Theodora, a young, beautiful, naïve witch who believes he is the wizard prophesied to become King of Oz by defeating the Wicked Witch, who killed the previous king. 

Oscar does the math. 

• Hot beautiful girl? Check!
• Chance to become a king? Check!
• All the wealth that comes from being king? Checkity check check!

"Hello! Yes, I am the Wizard of Oz!" 

Theodora falls in love with this scheming con artist. Yes, that will come to bite everyone in the ass.

In the Emerald City, Theodora's older sister Evanora tells Oscar the Wicked Witch resides in the Dark Forest and killing her is a breeze 'cause all you gotta do is destroy her wand.

Pssst! Evanora's really the wicked witch. And the witch she is sending Oscar after is the late king's daughter Glinda the Good Witch.  

While Oscar is off on his errand, Evanora convinces Theodora that Oscar does not recipricate her feelings of love (which isn't all that hard to do since, well, he actually doesn't).  Taking advantage of Theodora's heartbreak, Evanora transforms her into the green skilled hooked nose mystic crone we will come to know and loathe from The Wizard of Oz (or come to feel sorry for in the musical Wicked, take your pick).    

Glinda brings Oscar up to date on the what the score is and brings him to Munchkinland. Glinda also tells Oscar she knows he really isn't the Wizard of Oz but she still thinks he's the one who can free the citizens of Oz from the tyranny of the Wicked Witch(es).   

Oscar is all "oh Hell no!" to that! He's no leader of an army, of a movement. He's just a travelling magician, hustler and con artist. And the Munchkins are not soldiers. They're creators, they sew, they paint, they make thinks out of wood and and invent gadgets. 

Then he hits upon a plan to free the people of Oz using those skills as a travelling magician, hustler and con artist.  And the Munchkins abilities to sew, paint, build and and invent.  

Using smoke machines, image projectors, fireworks and loud speakers, the all mighty "Wizard of Oz" arrives at the Emerald City, defeats the wicked witches and frees the people of Oz! 

Hooray! 

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department

• Mila Kunis (Theordora) is that star of the Bad Moms movies I have reviewed here and also here.  
• Zach Braff (from Scrubs) provides the voice of Finley the flying monkey.

Oz the Great and Powerful was directed by Sam Raimi which may account for some the scarier moments in the movie such as the sequence in the Dark Forest. 

Oscar Diggs, the erstwhile WIzard of Oz, is a bit of a smarmy dude, an errant seducer of women and selfish for financial gain. But he has is moments of genuine heart. The scene where he repairs the broken China Girl is sweet. 

Which is kind of undercut by the casting of James Franco who scores in the bits where Oscar needs to be smarmy but seems to be off in the bits where "oh year, I'm also still a bit of a good guy too."  

Oz the Great and Powerful is beautifully rendered. Yes, it has the polished sheen of 21 century special effects but it doesn't look completely out of place compared to The Wizard of Oz. 

Oz the Great and Powerful is a fun and exciting exploration of the fantasy world created by L. Frank Baum in his early 20th century Oz novels.   

And it was on so what the hell.