Director Sam Raimi tells the story of a not so great small time magician who is down on his luck, but up for a great new adventure.
Oscar Diggs played by James Franco, who ironically nicknamed Oz, is the circus magician with a dim set of morals who gets whisked away from dull and dusty Kansas to the intensely vibrant Land of Oz The three witch sisters had the entire land afraid of an unidentified evil sister out to harm them, when Oz arrives adorned with all the qualities of the wizard that was prophesied to come and save their land. Oz meets the beautiful young witch Theodora played by Mila Kunis, who falls for his charm and potential with the immediacy of a star struck teen. Evenora, played by Rachel Weisz, is the openly sneaky witch pointing blame at her sisters for the bad that has turmoil in Oz. Glenda, played by Michelle Williams, is the one who knows that the prophecy of the Wizard of Oz, will be a tough one to ensure will come to pass..
This was a great and whimsical back track into the story of the Wizard of Oz. I was interested to see how the story of the wizard could be explained more in depth than in the Oz movies and stories of the past. I found it very poetic how the use of color and black and white film played together in movie settings. The Land of Oz on this film has to be view personally, because descriptions with mere words just wouldn’t be enough, the set designer deserves to be paid as much if not more than the actors. The twists and turns as to who was the evil witch and how she became were perfectly plated together. Fedora played the evil witch game like a high stakes poker game. The film smartly shows how when creativity and ingenuity cross paths, something magical seems to come about. Despite all of these good things about the film, it was just alright to me, I felt that there was something missing that I just couldn’t put my finger on. Perhaps a second viewing will help me discover what it was I give this film three and a half out of five star rating.
