Trailer Tuesday: Oz the Great and Powerful

bill bodkin and logan j. fowler are off to see the wizard…

Theater, Rent, No Thanks, Undecided? No Thanks. From the first minute I saw a trailer for this movie I was turned off. It’s kind of sad that over 70 years ago we could have an Oz that glowed using practical effects, nay even almost 30 years ago in Return to Oz, we got an alternative backdrop for the magical setting but still, it did the job. Now, in the year 2013 we get a vivid landscape comprised of full blown CGI effects that seems to be almost like a proud relative of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and from that I’m thinking I’m going to give this one a pass. It’s got a pretty good cast, mind you, but I’m sorry, I just can’t get past Oz (and a lot of it’s inhabitants including the Wicked Witch) appearing to be something out a video game. –LJF

Theater, Rent, No Thanks, Undecided? Theater. I totally get where my TT partner is coming from. On the surface Oz looks like the type of Hollywood cash grab that could let down the legions of fans of the classic film. People might think James Franco’s a bad choice — yes, there are people who found him to be pretentious and annoying. It also, like LJF mentioned, has an Alice in Wonderland (the Tim Burton version) look to it…and we all know how disappointing that film was. But I’ve got two words for everyone — Sam Raimi. And for me, that’s enough to assuage any doubts about this film. As a fan of all his works (Spidey 3 excluded, but that’s a given these days, right?) Raimi has always delivered. His films are visually marvelous, the attention to detail is always staggering and he knows how to get terrific performances out of his cast. Speaking of the cast — Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz, come on now, you can’t get much better than that. One can only hope for a Bruce Campbell cameo. Okay, maybe that’s just me, but still it’d be awesome. –BB