Movie Review #1

Oz: The Great And Powerful

So a few days ago during a school trip I saw two films, Cloud Atlas and Oz: The Great And Powerful, in that order. That probably didn't do the latter any favours. 

This is a movie that deeply annoys me. First of all it's part of what I fear is an accelerating trend, the "let's take classic fantasy and make it bloated and stupid' genre. I bet Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland just popped into half your heads. Remember, that film that turned a classic surrealist story into a big action, chosen girl-blah stupid. Perhaps Oz is better a choice for this treatment since the original already was a quest narrative and therefore needs less jury rigging. But that just means less thought and energy needs to be put behind it's story. 

So let's see we start with... Oz being an arsehole. No I am not surprised by this in the least since well the guy was a shadowy dictator who probably overthrew the king. But Disney doesn't want to offend the parents of the children who were only allowed to watch their movies and Bible-man. So while Oz is presented as a anti hero he is a depressingly toothless one. Now I know it's a family film but even pure children's entertainment can have characters with moral greyness. Case in point, we are introduced to Oz' "dark side"  in two ways, first he's a horrible flirt. Okay that's something I guess but the second way is truly stupid. Oz is a magician who operates under the pretence of being a real magic user... just like all magicians. 

Yes we are meant to feel like Oz is " lying to the people"  (apparently this is okay when it's a whole country but not a tent full of rednecks) by pretending to be a wizard. Yes there's a scene where a crippled kid wants him to heal her and it's sad but surely that's the fault of the parents for not telling her it's pretend.

So in order to make Oz seem like a dick everyone in Oz is so painfully nice and clean that they probably feint at the slightest hint of Afternoon Delight being played. Okay everyone loses conciousness when they hear that but for different reasons. 


The film is too tepid too warrent much more. If you're looking for a good Oz spin off go watch Return to Oz.