Oz: The Great and Powerful

[Batutta]

Better than I expected but still not all that great. Seemed like it needed a couple more rewrites. It didn't feel like the story really kicked into gear until the last 30 minutes or so. And while I didn't think James Franco was all that terrible, the role didn't seem a natural fit. It felt like Sam Raimi really imagined Bruce Campbell in the role but couldn't get the studio to cast him. I think Robert Downey Jr. was attached at one point too, who would have been better. I told the wife I thought Stephen Colbert would have been great in the role but she thought I was nuts. Anyway, a pretty middle of the road endeavor all things considered. I liked it much more than Alice in Wonderland though, for what that's worth.

 

[DevonH]

I would have highly enjoyed if they followed the storyline from Wicked verses establishing this whole new plot line, which has been left open for sequels, and based on a powerful debut, we could very well see those created.

I didn't feel a great amount of suspense, and felt that there was a lot of development that could have been done in regards to building the army and getting to know the townspeople.

I wonder if the writers got caught up in appealing to both the younger audience that this movie is obviously geared towards, and it's older audience at the same time.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

I would have highly enjoyed if they followed the storyline from Wicked verses establishing this whole new plot line

Maguire 'established' much of a new story line for his book series, with "Wicked" being the kickoff.

In the live presentations where I've seen Maguire, he has mentioned in passing, 'movie being made' from the book, but as it is, it seems that the live stage musical is the only adaptation as yet. The last time I saw him talk about it, he seemed to be of the mind that a 'musical' could do better with the internal monolog, than film... which is true... and so perhaps that is important for him, rather than the visual story telling of film.

 

[Batutta]

Yeah, when I saw Wicked many years ago I thought, "this'll be a Tim Burton movie by the end of the week.", so I'm kind of surprised it hasn't happened yet. Maybe there are rights issues.

 

[Gillvane]

I liked it. Wasn't awesome but good. Definitely tied in to the original story. I thought James Franco did a great job and was well cast for the role, and generally I liked the whole cast. It has some slow part and a few scenes that didnt' work wonderfully like the singing of the munchkins, but over all very entertaining.

 

[Ryan Farnes]

I literally fell asleep in the theater during this film. Woke up to this little china doll girl who seemed the most emotive character of the movie.

I still don't know what motivated Mila Kunis' character to become full blown evil other than that this was a prequel to her character being full blown evil. It was sort of like Anakin Skywalker kneeling and pledging allegiance to Palpatine. Yes, it needed to happen somehow, but the circumstances seemed rather weak to justify such a maniacal descent to moral depravity.

#ProblemsWithPrequels