Anybody else planning on seeing Oz the Great and Powerful?
The film's director is Sam Reimi and Oz is James Franco, and I know people have various qualms about them, along with maybe other personal issues with the film. Don't hold any special nostalgia for the original film, nor do I know any of the books or have seen/know about Wicked.
Saw the film and will post my thoughts in a bit. I have some issues with the film but there's a quite a bit I liked about the movie.
Apparently the film is "planning" sequels, but I guess that will depend on this film's success, which I doubt it will given it's production costs and it's March. And I read that they can't touch certain rights from the original film, but can touch the books that the film was based off of.
ANyways here's some rambling thoughts.
! There's a lot of 3D gimmicks here. A lot of it does that "it's coming at you" 3D, but there's only a few times it gets tiring. A lot of the coming at you 3D looks good, and actually the effects/visuals here are really well done. Hugo I think was the last film I saw that used 3D competently to this extent, though I never saw Life of Pi.
! There's also a neat little aspect ratio trick in the film too which was nice.
! I haven't seen Alice in Wonderland the remake so I don't know how it compares, but I felt like the movie for the most part captured my attention.
! James Franco has a lot of his "slimey/high" faces throughout the film. I don't know, there's just something about his expressions that bother me at times, but given Oz was a con man I felt at points they could be appropriately. Plus, I think he handled it well. Like I felt like his longing to be a great magician was genuine. His treatment of women and his lies make sense in the context of the film, and it seems fine. His showsmanship was eh.
! And the origins of the Wicked Witch of the West seemed, meh.
! The story itself was alright for the most part. A few tweaks here and there in the writing and plot. It bothered me that the land of Oz was so inconsistent with how much it knew about the human world. And figuring out who the wicked witch was also seemed really odd as well.
! My favorite character was the Little China Doll. She has some of the most heartfelt moments in the whole movie and some of the funniest lines too. Nothing like a tiny glass figuring holding a knife skipping to go hunt and kill a witch lol.
! I also like Zach Braff as the monkey. He had a lot of funny lines and his interactions with Oz was funny to me.
! As for Reimi, I never disliked the Spider Man films (well the first 2), so any problems that you might have had with those might still be here. But all in all I think it's more than passable, but not great.
Originally Posted by Nightwing
Stay focused, cause right now you have a decision to make. Are you a man perpetually looking back at what he’s lost, or a man looking forward, to what he might become?
And I read that they can't touch certain rights from the original film, but can touch the books that the film was based off of.
That doesn't mean much, jus tthe stuff the movie created, like "Ruby slippers". In the book they were silver. There's very little in the old movie they can't actually use, since a lot of it IS from the books.
That doesn't example Disney using the ruby slippers previously in Return to Oz an unofficial sequel. The Gnome king has the slippers in that movie and they aint silver.
Watched this last night. Fairly fun - nowhere close to wonderful/return, but I wasn't bored. Scenes between oz/doll were the best, and it picked up towards the end.
That doesn't example Disney using the ruby slippers previously in Return to Oz an unofficial sequel. The Gnome king has the slippers in that movie and they aint silver.
Through the application of a large sum of money to MGM.
well this was awful…im surprised the reviews are so mixed.
I liked it myself; for one thing, it's nice to see a film that actually makes use of a full color palette rather than yellow-yellow-slightly-different-shade-of-yellow.
Seeing Bruce Campbell in Winkie makeup was also pretty cool.
