As a fan since childhood of all the Oz books I eagerly anticipated and enjoyed (as did Jack) this prequel to The Wizard of Oz, with material drawn from many of the lesser-known books. It's a spectacle in 3D, perhaps not spectacular, but the visuals are wonderful. As I was driving to the theatre three weeks ago, I heard an NPR reviewer basically panning it but he liked the opening sequence in black and white. The b/w opening is delightful, including the steampunk credits, shown here (the youtube version inexplicably compressed side to side even more than the intentionally cropped version on the big screen). The first act shows James Franco's (last in these pages in Rise of the Planet of the Apes) Oscar Diggs (nicknamed Oz) in his former life as a Kansas magician/con man who gets into a hot air balloon just as a tornado sweeps by. Then, just as in the 1939 classic, the screen fills with highly saturated color, Glinda travels by bubble power, there's a yellow brick road leading to the Emerald City, and some scary witches. Though there was a lot of talk about MGM's copyrights on, say, flying monkeys leading them to substitute flying baboons in this picture, it seemed to us many of the original movie's touches are there anyway. And, though I knew from the L. Frank Baum books that there were three other kinds of Oz people besides Munchkins (Quadlings, Winkies, and Gillikins), the screenwriters decided to change Gillikins to Tinkers, with skills to match. Oh well, it makes for some terrific gadgets.
Franco is cute as Oz, as is Zach Braff (his first role was a tiny one in Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) (scroll down for a still), but he's best known for 175 episodes of Scrubs (2001-10), The Last Kiss (2006), and of course Garden State (2004) which he directed, wrote, and starred) as his sidekick Frank in Kansas and Finley the flying monkey (!) in Oz, but the witches really stand out. Michelle Williams (most recently in Take This Waltz) ever reliable as evanescent Glinda (I can't imagine earthy Blake Lively in the role--see trivia), Mila Kunis (I wrote nicer things about Black Swan than I did about Ted) as Theodora, and especially Rachel Weisz (The Brothers Bloom preferable to The Lovely Bones) as her sister Evanora. And Kim told me her daughter Zoe recognized child actress Joey King as the girl in the wheelchair and the voice of the China Princess. I could have done with less weeping from her (not Zoe).
Director Sam Raimi (I've liked the four I've seen: A Simple Plan (1998) and all three Spider-Men (2002, 04, 07)) uses his experience with horror and fantasy to good effect, pun intended, from the screenplay co-written by David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole) and Mitchell Kapner (The Whole Nine Yards (2000) but not the awful sequel), the latter of whom is credited with the story. And I see on imdb that a sequel to this one is in the works. They'll probably leave out the striped stockings.
The music is classic Danny Elfman, with choral bits and a big string-filled orchestra. I'm listening to it as I type, because someone was kind enough to post the entire hour plus soundtrack on youtube, and I'm hoping I'll be finished before it's done playing (yes, but for proofreading). There is a recurring theme that makes me think of parts of the classic tune Fools Rush In.
Rottentomatoes' averages are 61 critics/66 audiences. This isn't great art but we had fun. Too bad nobody shouted, "Who rang that bell?!"
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