Sam Raimi has been known for his hit and miss projects throughout the years. Despite being attached to movies that are still beloved to this day like the 2000s Spiderman films as well as The Evil Dead franchise, no one can deny that he can be an acquired taste as his slapstick and visually dynamic movies aren’t always for everybody. Therefore, people were worried and inevitably disappointed by his 2013 film, Oz, the Great and Powerful. Even ignoring that The Wizard of Oz is still a pinnacle of film-making that was scarcely adapted much after its first outing as future projects never hit the same level of success as the original film did (even its own sequel, Return to Oz), and it safe to say that this film didn’t sway that mindset in any way. In early 1900s Kansas, a con artist magician named Oscar Diggs (played by James Franco) wants to make a name for himself by doing great things, but he just can’t seem to perform strong tricks with his talents to make a name for himself. The world takes the term ”rising high” to a new level however when he’s whisked away in a balloon by a tornado to the wonderful Land of Oz. Upon arriving in this new world of wonders, he comes across some interesting characters including a talking butler Monkey named Finley (voiced by Zach Braff) who decides to become his servant after he saves his life, a living China Girl (voiced by Joey King) who was recently orphaned after her village was destroyed and a good witch named Glinda (played by Michelle Williams), who among others in Oz believe him to be the prophesied wizard who will become king of the land and save them from the Wicked Witch. Using his illusions and his salesmanship, he convinces everyone that he is this prophesied wizard and agrees to find and destroy the Wicked Witch of the West, not realizing that she recedes in the Emerald city under the guise of Evanora (played by Rachel Weisz) who tries to use his tricks to her advantage while also using her sister, Theodora (played by Mila Kunis) by manipulating her romantic interest in him to fulfill an evil plot that could result in the end of Oz. Oz the Great and Powerful did well at the box office, but failed to please audiences and critics as many believed it didn’t savour the possibilities that could come from this environment and this world. While it still features some decent chunks of imagination and wonder that match the spirit and tone of the original L. Frank Baum stories, it also carries with it a lot of awkwardness and a lot of bad choices that result in an overall messy film.

From the beginning alone, a big contention with its premise was that it had already been done much stronger in the popular book and Broadway show, Wicked. Both told a prequel story to the Wizard of Oz through a new lens (that of the Wicked Witch played much more sympathetically in this version) and offered a new perspective to such a familiar story with memorable characters, iconic musical numbers, and a manner of storytelling that many would try and recapture several years later. This is the uphill battle this film faced as everybody agreed that the narrative was overly cliched and never captured the same level of intrigue that Wicked managed to do. When they set up that this story is going to follow the ”liar reveal” trope, it immediately lowers its quality as every audience is aware where the entire film is going from that point on, and its hurt that they would utilize such a lazy and generic trope from a book series that is prime with fantastic material that could have worked for inspiration, but due to the tight-roping they had to do with copyright issues surrounding Disney and Warner Brother’s ownership of the brand, things had to be handled delicately. The film seems to be very confused, almost every decision seems off and should have had more direction throughout. Raimi is a unique director and outside of a few choice visuals, he seems like an odd choice for this film as it doesn’t allow for his unique spirit to come out. The Wizard of Oz has a very basic story, but it also had a lot of charm, visual wonder, likable simple characters, and the plot served as the main driving point for portraying the lesson, while this one felt more by the numbers. Maybe if there were more creative ideas and more interesting characters sprinkled throughout, it would have been easier to stomach, but without them, this script by Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire comes off as a bit lazy.  However, despite these problems, there are slight occasions when the movie is able to capture the spirit and feel of the original story. Scenes like when they are floating in bubbles or revisiting the Emerald city bring about a certain nostalgic flair while still feeling unique to this specific world, and probably the pinnacle is when they enter a village made of tea pots and they need to restore a broken living, China Doll. It is easily the best part of the movie as it has a certain magic to it, the blending or realities feels the strongest with how this connects back to something the lead experienced in the real world, and it’s a really soft tender moment that the movie could’ve used a lot more of.

A good chunk of the actors, despite showing their talent off in other places, feel miscast in these roles. While James Franco can be a talented actor at times, he doesn’t really fit in the role as Oz. The role calls for someone who can play more of a fast-talker and someone who could legitimately fool people into believing his lies like Robert Downey Junior, Johnny Depp, or Hugh Jackman whereas Franco feels more like a guy who was pretending to be a con- artist instead of an actual con-artist.  He still does fine, but there were better more fitting choices. Zach Braff as the monkey got annoying after a while, Michelle Williams isn’t given much to do as the good witch even though she seems like a good choice, Rachel Weisz seemed like a good choice and fit well as a wicked witch but gets sidelined very quickly, The China Doll voiced by Joey King is easily the best character in the film and even has some clever ties back to Oz’s real life, including that fun blending of realities that this film seems to lack from the original, and even though her role is pretty small, she does leave a strong impression just from this role alone. Easily the biggest blunder this movie had to face was Mila Kunis as the Wicked Witch which is sadly as funny and ill-fitting as it sounds. Mila Kunis can be a funny actress who has proven to be good in other material, but this is the completely wrong choice. To be fair, the build-up isn’t that bad and while the idea of having the main antagonist of the original story just be a unrequited love of the Wizard is a little soap-opera-esque, it could work if handled right, but ultimately it still fails. The make-up is laughable and doesn’t look at all like Weisz’s more fitting make-up (even though it was supervised by famed make-up artist Greg Nicotero), the voice she has isn’t threaten or dramatic, and its sadly hard not to laugh at her whenever she’s on screen and that’s not supposed to be the intention.

The film encompasses a more style over substance approach, which for a Wizard of Oz film directed by Sam Raimi, makes a lot of sense, but even this element has problems. It is a very visually intriguing movie, with some of the settings and characters designs being very nice to look at and even though the magic of the original can’t be replicated, it has a decent variety of colorful locations and magical designs. While some backgrounds look a bit green screen-heavy and interchangeable from other magical realms, they still look appealing. It does take some creative approach in recapturing the ideas of the original visual style while still being unique enough to be its own thing. The opening is shot in a completely different aspect ratio, shrinking the screen to feature black bars around the sides and being in complete black and white. Not only does this work as a clever allusion to the original film, but it also feels like a nice update to that format and isn’t just comfortable doing the same thing again. It also works when Oz is first shown and the screen returns to widescreen and the color appears, acting as a visual identifier for the vast and magical new world. Some of the shots by Peter Deming are creative, most of the effects are hit and miss, but when they work (like the China Doll), they really do look great, and it’s clear that Raimi envisioned the way he wanted this movie to look more than he did think how it would pan out from a story or character standpoint.

Doing a prequel story to how the world of Oz became what it was in the original film isn’t a bad idea and could have been done with a lot of creativity and fun, as well as a fair amount of nostalgia. Maybe if it was given more time, and better choices were made, it could have been something more than mediocre. It’s a well-intended, somewhat creative, and visually interesting, but rather awkward and clumsy film. Some of these casting choices were a bit off, some of the dialogue could have been a lot more engaging and more inventive, the pacing in some moments could have been a bit better, and it could have provided a more interesting return to the classic kingdom of Oz we all know of. If you want to see some nice-looking visuals and a couple of good scenes, it’s not the worst version of this kind of story, but it would be safest just to go back to Wicked or just check out Return to Oz. If you’re looking for something a lot more complete and better structured, I’d say you would probably need a lot more glue.

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