Review by Bob Ignizio
Womanizing
carnival magician Oscar (James Franco) escapes from the vengeful
boyfriend of a recent conquest via hot air balloon, but soon finds
himself swept away to a magical land via tornado in OZ THE GREAT
AND POWERFUL. Grateful to have survived, Oscar swears to change
his ways. When Oscar finds himself
caught in the middle of a fight between three witches – Theodora
(Mila Kunis), Glinda (Michelle Williams) and Evanora (Rachael Weisz)
for control of the Emerald City, however, his old cad instincts kick
in again as he tries to play the angles in the way that will benefit
him the most. With the whole kingdom counting on him, can Oscar
finally turn over a new leaf and become the great wizard everyone
says he is?
Unless you somehow have absolutely no
knowledge of Frank L. Baum's The Wizard of Oz
and its 1939 film adaptation, it's not much of a mystery. We know
where the Wizard winds up; we just didn't know how he got there. Well,
thanks to OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, now we do. We also get a couple of new
magical characters to take the place of the Cowardly Lion (seen
briefly, or at least I think it was supposed to be him), Tin Man,
and Scarecrow: Finley (voiced by Zach Braff) is a flying monkey who
finds himself stuck helping Oscar with his deceptions, and a little
girl made out of China (Joey King) who may be fragile, but certainly
isn't weak.
