Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)

So I recently went to see Wicked the musical at the Milton Keynes Theatre. And I have to say it was fantastic, the acting was brilliant, the songs were excellent, it truly had the passion and energy to be magnificent. If you get the chance do not pass it up. But for now, it's been less than a week and I miss the show and, unfortunately Wicked doesn't appear to be on DVD like Les Miserables, so I decided to get 'Oz the Great and Powerful' to help ease the burden.

It's not the same.

Oscar Diggs (James Franco), "Oz" to his mates, ends up travelling to Oz (what a coincidence that Oz's nickname matches the name of the place). Here he meets Theodora (Mila Kunis) and Evanora (Rachel Weisz) who ask him to kill the Wicked Witch (Michelle Williams), but is everything all that it seems?

This film is kinda weird. And not in the Oz-weirdness that we're used to in 'The Wizard of Oz' or Wicked, no, this film is just weird. I mean, for the first ten, fifteen minutes or so when Oz is in our world, it's black and white and the screen is small. I can understand why it's black and white, the 1939 film started off the same way, identifying the normality and, in some cases, the dullness of our world, before going to the bright and exciting world of Oz. The land, not the character. But, why was the screen small? Was the film making fun of what TV's were like sixty, seventy, eighty years ago? There was no real need to make the screen so small.

Now, it doesn't really help that the characters don't seem real. Oh, I know the film involves witches, porcelain dolls, flying baboons, and munchkins, but that's beside the point. No-one seems suited for their roles, and that's a damn shame because I know these people can act. Rachel Weisz, Mila Kunis, James Franco, Michelle Williams, these people can act. The problem is they're portraying characters they shouldn't be playing. Well, okay, Williams is actually believable in her role and Franco the......second closest, but no-one else can really match them.

Not only that, but the surroundings don't look real. If you look back at the 1939 film, everything looks real, the sets looked believable, for the time it was made anyway. You look at this film, and it looks painfully obvious that they are performing in front of a giant green screen. Not just that, but anything that isn't humanoid looks fake.

And it definitely doesn't help that the plot is all over the place. After a slow start it suddenly goes into overdrive and jumps from place to place, plot point to plot point. You learn a fair bit about Oz before he goes to...Oz...seriously, that's the problem with naming your title character the same as the location of the film. Anyway, we learn a fair bit about his life before he goes to Oz, but there's only really two points which come up again when he goes to Oz, neither of which are really that effective, it's not like the the lessons that Dorothy learns when she goes to Oz, they're more minor inconveniences for Oz.

So let's see. The acting is off, the characters aren't good, the story is all over the place, everything looks fake, and yet I still want to watch this film again. Yeah, it's really bizarre, but despite the flaws it's still quite an enjoyable film to watch. It seems to be one of those films where it's so bad it's good. It's got a certain knack, a certain feeling to it, you want to continue watching it. Maybe it's some references to the 'The Wizard of Oz', but then again 'Wicked' did that also to a better effect.

So, this is bad. The film is exceedingly bad, there's no denying it. The acting is off, the characters are bland, the story feels rushed at times, the effects look bad, and yet it has that certain something which actually doesn't make the film horrendous. Although, there is...one certain aspect of the film which makes you wonder why. See the spoiler section below.










Spoiler Section

Mila Kunis in the Wicked Witch! Of the West anyway. Rachel Weisz is the Wicked Witch of the East, Michelle Williams is the Good Witch of the North. And they thought we wouldn't notice?! I mean, sure, Oz wouldn't know that Evanora and Theodora were the Wicked Witches, but seriously? Did you really expect that a large part of your audience hadn't watched the original film that came out 80 years ago? The fact that Evanora and Theodora wore dark clothes while the "evil" Glinda wore white? I mean look at your promotional poster!

Right there!

You're showing the "twist" in your bloody poster!

Course, Theodora is also wearing white, which is actually quite good since part of the film focuses on the battle of her soul between the forces of good and her evil sister. And the film does show a pretty smart reference to the original film when Theodora's tears cause her skin to crack, due to her weakness to water. And here I thought she was a Xenomorph.

And of course this comes to the worst part of this film. Mila Kunis is the Wicked Witch. No disrespect to Mila Kunis, but, she is not a good Wicked Witch. No pun intended. Her anger doesn't come off well, her rage filled screams don't sound right. You know how I said in 'The Many Voices of the Joker' post that if you can't do the Joker's laugh you can't play the Joker. It's exactly the same with the Witch's laugh, and Mila Kunis cannot do the Witch's laugh.

But, you know how the Wicked Witch in the 1939 film was terrifying and scary?

The 2013 version is fucking hilarious.

Look, as much as I like Mila Kunis, the way her character was portrayed in this film was a mistake.