Sunday, April 28, 2013

Oz The Great and Powerful - Stephen Mason


             Oz the Great and Powerful is a prequel movie that attempts to provide a back story for the events that occurred in the original Wizard of Oz that was released in 1939. The movie starts out with Oscar Diggs, who would later become the Wizard of Oz, being taken away in a tornado to the Land of Oz. After arriving and meeting Evanora, Glinda, and Theodora, who would later become the witches of the original throughout the course of the movie, he attempts to prove to the inhabitants of Oz that he is a magician. Theodora eventually bites an apple that turns her green, which signals her becoming the Wicked Witch of the West, and attempts to attack the Emerald City. Using a mixture of technology in order to frighten her away from attacking, Oscar is able to repel the attack. From this point on Oscar Diggs, now taking the title of Wizard of Oz, uses the projector that he used to repel the attack as his true form, becoming the character that would be encountered later.
              I can’t really say that I am a fan of these prequel movies, especially given the fact that the original was made so long ago and has become such a greatly loved classic. Even given the usage of heavy amounts of CGI that was used in the movie, which did in a away make the movie a bit better, the movie did not really capture the same aspects of greatness that made the original so well-received. The original was created before the heavy usage of CGI and really felt more real and was overall more entertaining than this movie was to me. I believe that the heavy usage of CGI was really the main draw to the movie, and when coupled with a story that was kind of difficult to understand at times, made the movie a bit of a wash in my opinion. The movie was however commercially successful, which I guess is really all that matters to a lot of producers anyway.

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