Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)

nTitle: Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)

nDirector: Sam Raimi

nCast: James Franco, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, MillanKunis, Zack Braff

nReview:

nSam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful was probably not anneasy movie to make for Raimi, especially when we take in consideration that it’snsupposed to be an unofficial sequel to MGM’s Wizard of Oz (1939), a film thatnis revered and loved by many. Aside from keeping audience approval in mind atnall times, Raimi had to also deal with a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo from the MGMnguys, but I’m getting ahead of myself, let me explain things a bit so you won’tnget lost in the magical Land of Oz. You see, L. Frank Baum’s Oz novels becamenpublic domain in 1985, so from there on in, anybody could make their own Oznthing, which is how Disney’s Return to Oz (1985) came to be. Now, though Baum’snnovels became public domain, whatever original elements MGM came up with forntheir film is strictly the property of MGM, so Disney or anybody who wants tonmake their Oz thing, cannot use any of the elements that MGM came up with forntheir movie. This includes and covers everything from the ruby red slippers (whichnwere never red in Baum’s books), to the green tone on the Wicked Witch’s face! Disneyncouldn’t even use the wart on the Wicked Witch’s chin because that wart belongsnto MGM! So making this new Oz movie must’ve felt a bit like walking on a mine fieldnfor Sam Raimi.

nRaimi works out a scene with James Franco

nStill, I think even though they tried their best to get awaynfrom MGM’s film, they still ended up paying homage to it. This is somethingnthat they admittedly did entirely on purpose. There are many similaritiesnbetween MGM’s Wizard of Oz and Oz the Great and Powerful, first of all, bothnfilms start out in sepia tones and later turn to color once we reach the Landnof Oz. We have the singing Munchkin’s and the Wicked Witch flying on a broom,nleaving a trace of black smoke behind her. The color scheme for both films isnextremely similar, the yellows and greens have that over saturated look. Thenfilm looks as if Ted Turner himself had converted the film from black and whitento color. My guess is that Raimi and Disney tried to get as close as they couldnto MGM’s film without breaking any of the legal boundaries. Smart move on theirnpart because the idea that people have of Oz and that world is very closelynlinked to the old movie. They want that old yellow brick road, they want thensame Emerald City, the want those Munchkins. So fans of the old movie can restnassured that this new film is extremely similar to the old MGM film.

nNow here’s something I didn’t expect from Oz the Great andnPowerful: how closely it resembles Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness (1993)! Now for those not in the know, once upon antime, Sam Raimi was once a filmmaker struggling to make his way in Hollywood. He made a moderately successful comic book film called Darkman (1990), and so Universal gave him the chance to follow that up with Army of Darkness, the closing chapter of his Evil Dead seriesnof films; a series of films he started making way back in the beginning of hisncareer, with his first film The Evil Dead (1981). After a successful run inntheaters, he followed The Evil Dead with Evil Dead 2: Deadnby Dawn (1987) and ended the whole shebang with Army of Darkness. Now thensimilarities between Raimi’s Oz film and Army of Darkness are not denied by thendirector himself. In an interview for Screen Rant he mentions that he was awarenof these similarities, and that he tried to get away from them as much as hencould, but that at the same time he felt it wouldn’t be much of a problem, sincena lot of people have not seen Army of Darkness. In that interview, Raimi also mentions that any similaritiesnbetween both films cold be blamed on the writer of the script, which existednlong before Raimi was ever committed to directing the picture. But if you ask me, Raimi knew exactly what he was doing because the similarities are way too obvious and you know what? So what, I liked it! Oz the Greatnand Powerful is essentially Army of Darkness but the characters from Wizard ofnOz! And made with Disney’s kajillions!

nAnd so, here my dear readers I offer you the similaritiesnbetween both! There be SPOILERS AHEAD, so you’ve been warned!

nASH AND OZ

nOn Oz the Great and Powerful, Oscar Diggs is an illusionistnwho works in a traveling circus. He is a sleazy guy who lies to the girls andnwants to bed them all, he uses sweet lies in order to more easily seduce them.nHe is a hero, but not entirely. He lies, cheats and scams every chance he gets.nIn many ways, the great and powerful Oz is an anti-hero. Interested in personal gain, he acceptsnhelping others to achieve his goals, even with all these negative qualities, henends up becoming a leader and a hero to the people.

nIn Army of Darkness, Ashley Williams is your regular blue collar worker. He’snsleazy with the ladies and wants to bed them all, telling them stories andnusing “pillow talk” in order to get to first base. He’s our hero, but notnentirely. He is afraid to do what he has to do; he is at times a liar and ancoward. But his interest in personal gain makes him help others, even with allnthese negative traits, he ends up becoming their leader and hero.

nHERO GETS WHISKED AWAY TO ANOTHER LAND THROUGH A MAGICALnWORM HOLE

nIn the ending of Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn Ash opens up anportal that is supposed to suck away all the demons and send them to some otherndimension, unfortunately, the portal also sucks him in. Ash soon discovers thatnthe portal doesn’t send him to another dimension; it actually sends him back inntime! And so, suddenly Ash finds himself in medieval times, becoming the leadernof a group of people who are fighting against an Army of the Dead.

nIn Oz the Great and Powerful, an illusionist known as Oscar Diggsnis one day whisked away by a tornado, he soon discovers this isn’t just anynregular old tornado, nope, this tornado ends up magically sending him to the strangenand wonderful Land of Oz! When he arrives, he finds himself becoming a leadernof a group of people fighting against an evil witch and her army.

nHERO MUST AQUIRE A MAGICAL ARTIFACT TO COMPLETE HIS MISSION

nIn Army of Darkness, Ash must retrieve ‘The Necronomicon’, anmagical book which the demons (a.k.a. Deadites) have an insatiable hunger for. If henachieves this goal correctly, he saves the people and fulfills a prophecy. Innorder to retrieve this book, Ash must venture into a spooky forbidden cemetery wherenthe book rests.

nIn Oz the Great and Powerful, Oz must retrieve a witch’snmagical wand, in this way, fulfilling a prophecy that will allow him to turn innthe “Great and Powerful Oz”. In order to get this magical wand, Oz must ventureninto a spooky cemetery to get it.

nLOVE INTEREST TURNS EVIL

nIn Army of Darkness Ash falls for a beautiful maiden callednSheila, unfortunately at a given point in the film, Sheila turns evil when possessednby demons! Sheila tells Ash: “You found me beautiful once” to which Ash repliesn“Honey, you got reeeeal ugly!”

nIn Oz the Great and Powerful, Oz falls for the beautiful Theodora,na good witch who dreams of one day becoming Oz’s queen. When circumstances innlife tear them apart, Theodora’s hatred for Oz turns her into the proverbial ‘WickednWitch of the West’.

nEVIL ARMIES and ROUSING SPEECHES

nIn Army of Darkness Ash must train a medieval army in ordernto fight against the demonic Army of Darkness. Ash gives a rousing speech innwhich he motivates his army to fight for their land.

nIn Oz the Great and Powerful, Oz must train The Munchkins, ThenTinkers and The Winkies to fight against the Wicked Witch of the West’s evil army.nHe gives them a rousing speech that motivates them into using their smarts andntheir cunning in order to achieve this.

nEVIL FLYING MONSTERS

nIn the world of Army of Darkness, there exists such a thingnas a ‘Deadite’. What’s a Deadite you might ask? Well, Deadites can come in allnforms, but one of the most hideous is the flying demons you see pictured above.nIn one moment of Army of Darkness, a deadite snatches Ash’s love interest awaynand flies away with her.

nIn Oz the Great and Powerful, there exists such a thing asnan evil flying monkey; actually, there’s a whole army of them! In one pivotalnscene of the film, an evil flying monkey snatches away Glinda the good witchnand flies away with her.

nGUN POWDER = UPPER HAND IN BATTLE

nIn Army of Darkness, Ash comes from the future and mustnlearn to live amongst the “primitive screwheads” from medieval times. In ordernto have the upper hand in the battle against the Army of Darkness, Ash shares hisnknowledge of gun powder and chemistry with the soldiers of medieval times.

nIn Oz the Great and Powerful, Oz shares his knowledge of gunnpowder and fireworks with the people of the Land of Oz so they can use it inntheir battle against the evil witches.

nEVIL EVANORA – SHE BITCH

nIn Army of Darkness, Ash fights with a possesed old lady whom he refers to as “She Bitch”. He fightsnwith her for a few seconds before blowing her away with his boom stick. In the ending of the film, he fights a similar looking possesed woman, whose ass he also blows away with his boomstick afternwhich he proclaims himself a king.

nIn Oz the Great and Powerful, Glinda the Good Witch must donbattle with Evanora the most evil witch of all, after Glinda beats Evanora, shentransforms Evanora into who she really is, an old hag, who looks a hell of anlot like the “She Bitch” from Army of Darkness, and I mean a heck of a lot, it’s almost a copy paste type of deal! At the end of the day, Oz ends up being King of Oz.
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nAnd that my friends, ends the comparison part of my review!

nBut of course, the biggest similarity between these twonmovies is it’s director Sam Raimi. The film might be Disney, and it might be Oznbut at times you will also notice it is very Sam Raimi, it has those kinetic cameranmoves that let you know it’s Raimi behind the cameras. It even has cameos by Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell! Sadly, theres no 1973 yellow Oldsmobile on this one, you know, the car that Sam Raimi puts in all of his movies! But aside from all that, I personally reallynenjoyed the film, me being a huge fan of the Oz books and films, well, I wasnhaving a blast. One of the few flaws I found was Mila Kunis who for some reasonndidn’t deliver a great performance; her acting dialog delivery felt robotic andnunnatural, no real emotion in it. But that’s a minor hiccup. Her bad performance stands out amongst all the other good ones. I mean, James Franco did a good job of portraying Oz equal times sleazy and equal times heroic. But if I had to pick a favorite it would have to be Rachel Weisz, who was great as evil witch Evanora. But Kunis? Left a lot to be desired. Still, even with this minor hiccup, the film ends up being ultra fun, and loaded with tons of visual effects. Yes my friends, this is one colorful mind bending CGI overdose that I recommend checking out on 3D. If you like CGI fests and you like 3D, then you should have yourself a dandy old time!

nSam Raimi goofing around on the set of Army of Darkness

nThere was something else that I didn’t enjoy in thisnparticular Oz film. You see, the Oz films have always played with the idea thatnthe powers that be are lying to the masses through politics and religion, thisnis an aspect of these films that I’ve always found daring. Yet, in anninteresting turn of events, this time around the film tells us that these lies arensomething necessary in society, a necessary evil if you will. In this way, itnis similar to Life Of Pi (2012), yet another film that tells us that it isnbetter to believe the pretty lie, then live with the awful truth. For this Ingive the film a point less, why? Because I don’t think the masses need to benlied to, I think people should be told the truth, no matter how “desperate thentimes”, for what kind of society are we living in if it’s all based on a lie?nAccording to this film, people are lied to because they need a hero, they neednhope, they need someone to look up to. Why do films like Life of Pi and Oz thenGreat and Powerful think it’s a good idea to lie to the people in order to keepnthem happy? I’d love to see a sequel in which the people of Oz found out thatnthey’ve been had all along; wouldn’t that make an interesting sequel?

nRating: 4 out of 5