Sadly Over-hyped

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

MY GOOOD! I can believe they did that.I don't even know where to start. This movie is incredibly able to have worse effects than the one of 1939. It is worse than the Star Wars prequel's. Most of the CGI is without details and without life (except for the Porcelain Doll), it seems even a lazy production, EVEN THE TREES ARE MADE WITH GRAPHIC COMPUTING! WHY?! WHYYY?!That wouldn't be such a big problem if the movie was good, but that's not the case. From the beginning the movie tries to take the nostalgia of the original. For example, in the beginning, that just like the iconic 39's movie starts without colors and only when we get to Oz do they appear. However, even on that the film fails, starting with the black and white image, when the original is brown and white. From then on several forced citations and small references are played during the movie to perhaps make you care (like the various references to Scarecrows).That said, let's look at the story itself, without considering that this thing tries to serve as a prequel to the work of art that was launched in the 1930s. The plot (if you can call it a plot) is confusing and things do not seem to happen for any particular reason, the perfect example of this is the transformation of "Theodora" into "Wicked Witch." The goal is to look like she had a broken heart, so she decided to turn bad once (eating an apple? Really?), That would even work, but how long had she interacted with the Magician? 2 DAYS?! And how can she be that stupid? How can everyone in the city be so dumb, to spend decades on the command of a tyrant and evil Witch and not realize? Look, I know it's a fantastic world, I know that even the original follows very basic premises of fantasy and that being too critical isn't very correct, but to me that's lazy to try to make a minimally coherent story, not a complex story, just a coherent one.I'm going to skip the bad performances (James Franco), not to mention that only ridiculous things surround the movie, there are three cool things worth highlighting (but they do not change the quality of the movie very much, nor do they make it worth your time).It is clear that every single scene Mila Kunis is trying to do something cool, and from the moment she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, for me, she delivers a performance that lives up to the original, with the character's striking features.The final "battle", when it is shown the great trick that Oz planned is a good scene, it seems something the original Wizard would do, even though it is a predictable scene, it is good. Pay attention, this scene is good, the """battle""" of the two Witch's after that isn't.And finally, by far the best thing in the movie: Michelle Williams. She is simply fantastic as Glinda, every moment she appears on the scene no one else matters, it's amazing how she managed to do something extremely faithful to Billie Burke's performance, and at the same time add something more to this character that doesn't appear much in the first movie. Amazing! Wonderful! Beautiful! But that's it, she's the only great thing in the whole movie.OH! One more thing I remembered: DO YOU REALLY NEED TO EXPLAIN THE F#CKING BROOM ?! Seriously?!

Oz was an original movie so I don't really get why it got an average of 4/10. It was also really funny and authentic.First of all, this movie was pretty original. When you think of the Wizard of Oz you think of Dorothy, the tin man and the lion. You don't think of a charming imposter con man wizard played by James Franco, a flying monkey and a china girl. The important thing is that this cast works very well. I have nothing more to say then that it was very entertaining. Especially the last scene which has Oz using his con man skills to fool everyone into thinking he's powerful. There was also very beautiful animation once they get into oz. They really outdid themselves to make the land of Oz look beautiful.Second of all, this movie was hilarious. From the flying monkey to everything Oz does, it's hilarious. James Franco was perfect for this role.Third of all, this movie had an authentic Wizard of Oz feel. From the first act which was in black and white to the yellow brick road, it all feels like the Wizard of oz. Of course I'm not really in a position to say this but my mom is a huge fan of the 1930's original and she said it was a great representation.Unfortunately while the movie is 90% of the time quite original, it's also a little generic at times. I found the inclusion of generic witches too similar to Cinderella and every other Disney movie unoriginal.This movie is extremely underrated and I think that the authenticity, the acting, the humour and the originality make it worthwhile. You should watch it.

James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams star in Sam Raimi's 2013 fantasy adaptation of L. Frank Baum's books. This begins in early 1900's Kansas and Franco (Spider-Man) plays Oscar aka Oz, a small-time, circus/carnival magician who is taken to magical kingdom, Oz after being caught in a tornado where he meets new friends and sees bizarre things. After meeting attractive witches, Theodora (Kunis), Evanora (Weisz) and Glinda (Williams), he finds himself in a battle of good & evil testing his magic abilities and proving himself as a powerful wizard for the people of Oz. This is sort of a prequel to the 1939 classic, "The Wizard of Oz" and it's not bad. The cast is OK, there's beautiful visuals and Danny Elfman's score is excellent as usual. Bruce Campbell & Ted Raimi also appear briefly and I recommend giving this a try at least once.

The Wizard's Journey to Oz.Starring James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz.Written by Mitchell Kapner, David Lindsay-Abaire, based on the original stories by L.Frank Baum.Directed by Sam Raimi.If you want to watch a fun, family film at Christmas you can't really do better than this.It has all the ingredients to keep you glued to the screen. It's funny, imaginative, well acted and will make you feel warm and fuzzy in all the right places, It tells the story of what happened immediately before Dorothy and Toto arrived on Oz and it is faithful to the original movie.I also liked how they included the the land of china from the original book by L. Frank Baum. That was a nice touch. This is fun with a capital F. Perfect for Christmas.9/10