PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM NOR WISH TO KNOW ABOUT IT!
Welp, I guess I'll write my Oz review as well. Let me first start off by saying that if you go to see this movie, I strongly recommend paying the premium price and see it in 3d if you want the best movie experience as possible. Onto my review. So we obviously first start off in black and white even with the castle introduction and I must say, I was quite fascinated and intrigued as it is one of the best openings I've seen in a while. Loved how they incorporated the hand held puppet show/Oz sequence into the introduction. Anywho, we start off in Kansas where the village people are performing acts of various kinds like ringmasters, fire flamers,etc. who are all anxiously waiting to see the great and powerful Wizard of Oz perform at his annual show. We then meet Oscar Ziggs along with his newbie assistant show girl and his one and only friend Jake who later is the same actor that voices Finley the friendly monkey (Zac Braff). We see Oz show off his great magic skills and then all the sudden crowd members realize there's wires holding up his assistant. Cuts em off and people realize it was in fact magic at it's best. Then we see this younger girl in the audience who's in a wheel chair and she asks Oscar if he could make her walk. Oz says he can't and the crowd boos him and throws food at him and he runs back to his trailer. We then see this girl that Oz values very much only to find out that she is marrying another man Oz despises. He tells her too marry him and not see him again. As a final farewell gift, he gives her a music box that was his grandmothers. He also gave it to his assistant as well. Then we see this really big wrestler guy want to kill Oz, so he runs and gets on his hot air ballon and he escapes from danger with only his hat and his suitcase full of magical supplies. Then we see the tornado come and then we are off to Oz as this concludes the black and white first part of the movie. I love how much foreshadowing was in the first part of the movie as it shows the egotisticalness of Oz, the innocence of the wheelchair girl who is the real life version of a character you'll hear about later on in my post, and how Jake is the real life version of Finley. The assitant is like Theodora, and his lover is Glinda.
So now we go off to Oz and is now in film color. His hot air ballon is pretty much destroyed and he gets dropped into this waterfall scene where he goes all over the place and eventually reaches the bottom where he's able to rest. Oz can't swim but realizes he's in shallow water. This is also the scene where you see all those flowers really come into full bloom and you really see alot of the reminiscents of Alice in Wonderland. So this is when we meet our first witch, Theodora the good. She sees Oscar and instantly recognizes he is the great wizard they've all been waiting for and was told in this prophecy (to become king you must kill wicked witch by destroying her wand basically) which honestly they really didn't go all much into and would've liked to heard more of. Oz gets bit by these river fairies, but no wounds to his legs. Then we see the flying monkeys (which I loved and would''ve liked too seen them more) come after Oz and Theodora but Oz uses one of his white doves from his magic show to lure the monkey(s) away from them. Then we have this roasted fireside nightscene in which Oz falls in love with Theodora and he gives her the music box and they dance, make out, Oz tells her she'll be his queen, etc. Then when morning comes, they're on the yellowbrick road and they are off to the Emerald City. Now they run into Finley who is caught in some vines only to be attacked by this lion. Oz uses his magic and throws up a smoke effect and the lion wanders off. Finley then introduces himself saying the wicked witch killed his family and wants to be an eternal servant of Oscar's. He accepts and let's him carry his bags all the time. He then tells Finley that he's not the wizard they are looking for. So now we ride off into the Emerald City (which I must say was extremely beautiful and is someplace I'd love to live in) and we meet this munchkin called Nuck or as Oz calls him "sourpuss". Now as Theodora walks him into the Palace chamber we are shown to our second witch, Evanora (which was my favorite). She shows Oz around the kingdom and shows him the treasures of Oz which are his to keep only after he defeats the wicked witch. Then we see our first mildly dark scene where Evanora shows her displeasure of Oz and gets Theodora into believing that he's an oaf and shouldn't be trusted. Oz leaves the kingdom and agrees to fight/defeat the wicked witch. The important thing to keep in mind here is that he forgets to tell Theodora. So he and Finley are off on the quest to defeat the wicked witch. Then they run into this destroyed "tea cup like" town where they meet/find China girl. Her legs are broken and asks Oz if he can make her walk again. Oz glues her legs back together and she is able to walk again. This was one of the more touching scenes in the movie and made this Genie shed a few happy tears. Then they go back on the trail with China Girl now and are after the wicked witch. We are then taken to this eery/dark graveyard scene where we see the alleged wicked witch as we have heard about. They make/devise a plan which is later sneezed up to steal/destroy her wand. Oz steals it and attempts to break it only to be spotted. It turns out this was not the Wicked Witch moreso it was Glinda the good witch dressed in a grim reaper cloque. Evanora spots this in her own version "Madame Leone" crystal ball with Theodora in the background. So Glinda tells Oz how Evanora is the bad witch that killed her father and how she convinced the kingdom that she comitted the murder plot which isn't true. Theodora sees this and thinks Oz is falling in love with Glinda and it breaks her heart. Evanora also tells her that she slept/danced with Oscar. So then we see Evanora turn and watch her sister Theodora become/evolve into the Wicked Witch by taking one bite out of an Grannny Smith Apple. Evanora sends her flying monkeys/warriors after Oz and we see our first mini battle scene. They chase after them in the graveyard and Glinda uses this cloud spell to disguise themselves and not be scene. They escape with no harm/injuries although we almost see China Girl fall/break as she was flipped up in the air. So now they're in the bubble and fly to Glinda's Kingdom where all the good citizens there are proud with joy and greet Oz and Glinda with an arousing applause. Oz tells them he is their great wizard, but he tells Glinda he really isn't and she already knew that. Now we see the Wicked Witch come in and torture Oscar and diss Glinda. She leaves and the kingdom is in real terror/fright. Oz decides to leave Glinda's kingdom as he doesn't wand to fight or kill 2 wicked withces. He then tucks China Girl into bed and she asks if he can grant wishes but he tell her he can't. He then tells her how his great wizards would offer good people gifts and whatnot (Thomas Edison he mentions quite a bit) and this was another touchy scene between Oz and China Girl. Oz changes his mind and decides to stay and help Glinda come up with a battle plan that doesn't involve killing the forces of evil. The citizens there aren't warriors but comprise of tinkers, munckins, sewers, and one other group I forget that help and fight for Glinda and Oz. We then see Evanora and Theodora rally up their troops and tell them to destroy/kill all of Glinda's forces and capture Oscar. We then see Oz/Nuck/and the main Tinker arrive to the Oz gate disguised as warriors delivering weaponry goods. They enter Oz and go about with their plan. Glinda and her people wait in the forest as she cast her cloud magic spell with the field of red flowers and scarecrows walk across. Evanora sees this and commands her monkey's to attack and kill. They go only to fall asleep/dead when they are in the field. Evanora and Theodra are furious and get their 2 more trusted flying monkeys to capture Glinda in which she drops her wand. China Girl picks it up and almost gets spotted by Evanora. We then see China Girl march her way to the Emerald City trying to rescue Glinda. So now we see Oscar putting treasures into the hot air ballon made by the main tinker and is getting ready to fly in it. We see the citizens of the Emerald city furiated with Evanora and Theodora for capturing Glinda and sending off the wizard. Evanora is torturing Glinda with her magic and is just about ready to kill her until Theodra shows up in which she spots the hot air ballon. She sees Oz in it and throws a flame ball toward the ballon and it burns to the ground. The people think Oscar is dead until this smoke screen shows up and Oz is on it. He then declares he is all powerful and he relases dark magic on Theodora and Evanora. Theodora flees on her broom and there's the big let down battle of Glinda(who was freed by China Girl almost spotted by wicked withch) and Evanora and Glinda rips off Evanora's necklace and Evanora turns into this excerosism like creature and Glinda casts a spell sending her to fall towards her doom and is taken to safety by her 2 loyal monkeys. Emerald CIty is saved and Oz becomes the all powerful wizard. He pulls his loyal companions into his chamber and gives them all special gifts (Tinker gets a wire clipper, nuck gets a smile card, china girl gets a family, Finley gets Oscar's hat, Glinda gets nothing but makes out with Oz) and that is the end!
So overall, this was a movie that had it's moments and it had questionable parts. James Franco had a few great scenes but for the most part his acting was flat as @
PhotoDave219 stated. At least he looked the part in person, just not on the smoke screen. Mila Kunis was good as Theodora but didn't like her as the wicked witch. Rachel Weiz was the best witch and should've been the Wicked witch and have her and Theodora switch roles. Michelle Williams was okay as she looked the part but was too bland and really didn't seem too much into character. Zac Braff as Finley/Jake too be honest was a typical disney movie sidekick who was a nice fillibuster for the story but too me was overused a bit to much and was a tad bit annoying for me. Joey King as China Girl/wheelchair girl I actually liked more than I expected and you could really root/feel for this character as she was a sweet heart/prideful fellow and wish she had more parts in the film (at least with Oz). Nuck character was hillarious and needed to be used more in this film. Main Tinker looked like Bill Cosby and really didn't impact to much of the film's storyline, so I didn't really care for him. As a final grade, I give this film a score of C+ to a generous B- grade.
Please excuse the block text format.
