Film Review! OZ the Great and Powerful

CAST: I have never been a big fan of James Franco, but I liked him. The character of Oz needed to have a
            sense of sly, cleverness that Franco played to a tee. He also had the biggest grin in the world that
            helped carry the rather funny personality. (SPOILER!) Mila Kunis has a flaw. She is too good
            looking to play a witch. This was very obvious by the way the special effects guys made her look like
            a pretty wicked witch. Rachel Weisz is just gorgeous. I'm not sure if Michelle Williams had just
            finished shooting her 'Marilyn Monroe' pic when she did this film, but her Glinda the witch had lots of
            the blonde bombshell coming out of her. Zach Braff was rather good as the monkey Finley. He can
            always do the self deprecating jokes perfectly. Joey King as the bi-polar China Girl was also a good
            surprise.

STORY:  Better than expected! Oz was a charming fellow who was thrust into a situation much bigger than
                 him. I love the fact that, unlike Dorothy who spent her entire film afraid, Oz just took on one
                 challenge after another with a happy grin. There were many parallels with the original 'Wizard of
                 Oz'. Oz set out on his journey to "kill" the witch and on his way (and on the yellow brick road) he
                 met the people that would help him, just like Dorothy. He also gave "special" gifts to his fellow
                 companions at the end in a prelude to his actions in'Wizard'. The film makers showed us some
                 origins of things found in 'Wizard' that kept the audience whispering to each other. Also keep a
                 look out for cameos by the Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow. I did not see if the Tin-Man made
                 a cameo, maybe in the scene in the woods. I think they did make a huge mistake in not showing
                 us an origin for the ruby slippers, they had a perfect chance. This also confuses things between
                 the two 'OZ' films. In 'Wizard of Oz' Dorothy meets Oz before she goes into the tornado. So are
                 we to assume that Oz was able to go back and forth from our land to Oz? At the end of 'Wizard'
                 we are led to believe that it was all a dream but this film made no assumptions, it was played
                  as the real thing. Fun stuff!

VISUALS  With a film that is 90% digital effects you know it is gonna be beautiful, and it was. Some of the
                   CG is still rough (STILL?). The China Girl interacting with Oz comes to mind. Non the less it is
                   a great looking film.

FINAL FILE: Jump on your tornado and get to the nearest Theater...don't wait for the DVD, this 
                        is a BIG SCREEN film!