Movie Review: Oz The Great and Powerful (And Adjusted Posting Schedule)

Attentive readers will no doubt notice that this is not the review of Hitched! that I promised. In fact, I ended up DNFing that particular book 20 pages in after enumerable false starts, so I won't be reviewing it any time soon. Furthermore, life and work have kind of forcibly stalled my reading, and I'm no longer ahead in my posts as I was all February. Rather than rush to push out some crappy content while ignoring my other commitments, I'm going to take the weekend off and work on next weeks posts. Here's our adjusted schedule, which hopefully shall not have to be adjusted again.

March 11: Misc. Monday: Top 10 Authors on RtP (no genre restrictions)

March 12: Review of The Chocolate Thief by Laura Florand

March 13: Watch This Wednesday: Sweeney Todd

March 15: Review of Requiem by Lauren Oliver

March 16: Review of Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

March 18: Top 10 Most Annoying Songs

March 17: St. Patrick's Day Post

March 19: Review of Wanderlust by Eleba Levine

March 20: Watch This Wednesday: Rent

March 25: Misc. Monday: The Dowsides of Blogging

March 27: Watch This Wednesday: Anastasia

March 28: Review of The Chocolate Kiss by Laura Florand

March 30: Review of Lover At Last by J.R. Ward

March 31: Easter Post

Now, if I can get ahead enough, I would really like to do another theme month in April--Young Adult Month. But that's still very much in the planning stages, and may or may not happen in reality.

Also, I saw a movie last night!

Oz The Great and Powerful

If you don't already know, this is a prequel story of sorts to the iconic Wizard of Oz movie. It tells the origin story of the actual wizard, and how he came to do what he does.Oz is a magician in a traveling circus--he's a conman, he uses women, and he has no real friends to speak of. He's blown away in a hot air balloon through a tornado to the land of Oz, where everyone believes that he's a real wizard with the power to save their land.

We wanted to see this movie because it looked so pretty, and it is. It's a very visually appealing movie. Oz is bright and colorful, and in 3D everything just popped and sparkled.

Oz was a charming character, and the story itself was more than passable. Oz has always obsesses over becoming famous, rich, and admired, but his journey teaches him the importance of being decent and helping others. James Franco was surprisingly good in the part. Where in the past I've found his performances fake and hammy, in this case his acting style worked perfectly. He, and the entire movie, are over the top in the best possible way. I liked the fact that he uses his natural proclivity for lying to his advantage, and the movie doesn't force him to "learn a lesson" on that score.

Fans of the original movie will appreciate all of the nods to that story, though somethings are noticeable absent.The ruby slippers, for example, were not allowed to be used for legal reasons. I personally wasn't thrilled with the way the wicked witch appeared, but I think I was distracted by the fact that it was different from the original (again, for legal reasons) As for connectivity with the books...to be honest, I wouldn't know. I never even tried to read them. I had one friend who was obsessed with them, but apparently I didn't osmotically absorb any of her knowledge the way I usually do. If you've seen this movie and you know more than I, please feel free to comment and tell us about it.

Husband was impressed with the direction of the movie, Sam Raimi being one of his all time favorite directors. Fans of his work will notice his style seeping in is shots where characters run from the camera, in the sudden and disorienting use of dutch angles, and in the general humorous tone. If you like Evil Dead, you'll notice he also manages to slip a deadite in there. Yeah.

Overall, if you like whimsy and have at least a passing fondness for The Wizard of Oz, I think you'll enjoy this movie.