Oz the Great and Powerful Revisits Der Hexer Von Oz

In 1939, many say to be the greatest year in film, MGM's The Wizard of Oz had no chance up against Gone with the Wind at the Academy Awards, yet had it been released one year prior, or later, the beloved fantasy adventure that launched Judy Garland's career would have swept away the awards. At 16 years of age, Judy Garland was already Strasberg-ing it before Strasberg. Well, Sam Raimi's Oz the Great and Powerful has no Dorothy, basing itself on L. Frank Baum's Oz novels set 20 years before Dorothy shows up. Jack the Giant Slayer seems to have been slayed by the Land of Oz at the box office this weekend, taking in $79.1 million and leaving the competition in Kansas, which is precisely what the conman circus magician Oscar Diggs (James Franco) does. Transported away in a hot air balloon from Kansas to the Land of Oz in an amazing Terry Gilliamesque tornado scene, Oscar meets three witches who believe the young magician to be the Great Oz that will defeat the Wicked Witch and become the king of Oz. So, Oscar gets a gig at the Emerald City and rolls with it. James Franco is miscast as Oscar Diggs. His ongoing grin is unnecessary - it just looks like he's flirting with every character. I found myself enjoying the scenes more where Franco was not present. Casting a fairly unknown would have been the wiser choice here. In the trailers for Oz, it is hard to tell which witch is the true Wicked Witch. We all know that Glinda is the Good Witch, but what we didn't know is that Glinda is the new "It Witch." Yes, Michelle Williams has yet again stolen the show portraying the honest-to-goodness witch that packs a punch when her Emerald City is being messed with. Mila Kunis plays Theodora who, if you close your eyes, you could swear is still on set for That '70s Show. Theodora is not wicked enough. She's not ugly, nor scary, she looks like a girl I just saw at the goth club. So where is the evil? Blame Disney. Rachel Weisz is in the movie too if you check the credits, but I can't really remember. Sam Raimi's transition from a 4:3 aspect ratio in black-and-white to the widescreen 2.35:1 in color is cinematographically thrilling. This is what Tim Burton's film that we all want to forget ever happened, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, should have looked like. Sam Raimi took The Wizard of Oz and fully imagined the fantasy land in all its dreamlike beauty. It's Oz - dimensional and alive. The cinematography in Oz the Great and Powerful is breathtaking, and colors are utilized to the fullest extent to make the land look as magical as can be, and that it does. There are some casting missteps, as well as a bland script, but that shouldn't shy you away from watching this spectacle.

Director John Waters, like the Wizard, foretells the future of The Wizard of Oz in an interview on the special features DVD: "I think that would be suicide to make The Wizard of Oz today, as we know from every remake and every Broadway play that try to do it. I don't know who I would cast today. All unknowns, I think would be the only possible way to ever do it. I think it would be a cinematically incorrect idea to ever make it. The movies you should remake are the bad ones, not the good ones. It's actually blasphemy to try to remake that movie, and I would root for the failure of any production that tried to do so in any form."

Do you believe?

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