Oz

    Why must everything be remade or prequeled these days? It's completely unecessary to take a classic and throw a bunch of unneeded backstory into the tale, and there lies the problem with Oz; there's not much of a point for it to exist.

James Franco stars as Oz, an amateur magician who wants an elevation in his life. He soon receives that opportunity after escaping from angry circus men on a hot air balloon which magically transports him to an unknown land named Oz. He meets two witches named Theodora and Evanora (Mila Kunis & Rachel Weisz) who want him to become their king with one rule, he must kill the evil witch; Glenda (Michelle Williams). He soon is placed in the middle of their battle and must find out how to succeed when he doesn't even have a single power to his name.

For such a quickly summarized plot, Oz sure has an unjustifiable length. 130 minutes is far too long for such a thinly plotted film. Not enough is really going on to keep the audience entertained from beginning to end and it feels like it takes forever for the story to move along to the conclusion. Oz drags mainly because the actual film structure feels threadbare. I felt like there should have been more attention to the story as opposed to the physical surroundings.

Speaking of the physical surroundings, I have quite the love-hate relationship with them. The first 20 minutes are stellar, they look immaculate and it's one of the few times you feel like Oz has even a hint of a similarity to the original classic. However once the lead character moves into Oz, things go downhill a bit in terms of the visual success. Oz is quite the beautiful land, but it almost smacks you over the head with it's beauty. There's too many scenes that feel like they exist just to show off the creations. It gets a bit tiresome and at times you can almost imagine the green screen the actors are reacting to.

The performances are quite the mixed bag as well. James Franco and Mila Kunis I would say are the biggest struggles. I'm not sure if they struggle mainly due to their poor, bland characterization or if neither actor is really giving it their all, but their scenes fall flat. Franco looks bored half the time and tries way too hard at other times to be charming which feels stiff. Kunis is sadly bland from beginning to end. Even after she's endured her physical and mental tranformation, nothing of intrigue strikes with her. And don't even get me started on the completely unnecessary flying monkey and China doll characters.

Luckily, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams fare much better. Williams is one of the few that really displays any type of charm into her performance. Her scenes are just the right balance of sweet and strength. And Rachel Weisz is easily the biggest strength the movie contains. Sassy, sour, and sinister. She's easily the highlight and easily the person I was most waiting on whenever she was off screen. One of the few that actually brings a sense of magic to the film, despite the rest of it feeling like an artifice of real magic.

1/4