Oz the Great and Powerful (PG)

Film

Children's

Oz the Great and Powerful

Time Out rating:

<strong>Rating: </strong>2/5

User ratings:

<strong>Rating: </strong>3/5
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Time Out says

Fri Mar 1

It’s been 28 years since Disney last followed the Yellow Brick Road – and given the critical and commercial whipping endured by 1985’s tangled, terrifying ‘Return to Oz’, you can hardly blame them for being cautious. Such is the cultural landmark status of MGM’s 1939 ‘The Wizard of Oz’ that any attempt to adjoin it on screen, however laudable, seems a fool’s errand from the get-go.

The good news, then, is that Sam Raimi’s long, lavish, somewhat lumbering prequel is a more respectful retread than we might have expected from the studio behind Tim Burton’s hideous, near sacrilegious ‘Alice in Wonderland’. From its engaging black-and-white prologue, introducing James Franco as Oscar, a shyster Kansas conjuror set for a very unexpected journey, to the widened aspect ratio and saturated Technicolor-style palette as he’s carried to Oz by a familiar-looking tornado, Raimi’s film is far more in thrall to the Hollywood classic than the more subversive ‘Return to Oz’ was.

As Oscar is mistakenly embraced by the people of Oz as their long-awaited leader, charged with settling the battle between good (as represented by Michelle Williams’s wholesome witch Glinda) and evil (vampishly wielded by Rachel Weisz’s Evanora), he’s effectively a smart-arse stand-in for Dorothy, with the film treading a story path as indebted to the original as its explicitly referential production design.

What it lacks, rather like Oscar himself, is any authentic magic: the script’s post-‘Shrek’ wisecracks feel especially out of place, and the over-processed digital landscapes can’t match the beauty of handmade Hollywood artifice. As Mariah Carey trills a syrupy R&B ballad over the closing credits, we’re still left decidedly under the rainbow.

8

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Release details

Rated:

PG

UK release:

Fri Mar 8

Duration:

130 mins

Cinemas showing Oz the Great and Powerful

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Greenwich Picturehouse

180 Greenwich High Rd, London, SE10 8NN Show map/details

  • Address:

    Greenwich Picturehouse 180 Greenwich High Rd
    London
    SE10 8NN

  • Phone:

    08717 042 065

  • Website:

    www.picturehouses.co.uk

  • Opening hours:

    7.45pm

  • Transport:

    Rail: Greenwich rail/DLR

  • Price:

    £7, concs £5

  • Map

    1. Greenwich Picturehouse
Map
  • Tue May 21:

    • 10:00
  • Address:

    Stratford Picturehouse East London Salway Rd
    London
    E15 1BX

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  • Sat May 25:

    • 11:00
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Comments & ratings

Rated as: 3/5 (5 ratings)
  • its so cool

    nicholas Sat Mar 23
    Rated as: 5/5
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  • Possibly as high as 1.5 cause of passable CGI, however overall too drawn-out cause the script is lacking, the acting somewhat unenthusiastic and it is a set-up for a sequel. Save £34- the outlandish price I paid for a couple of tickets on a Sunday night in West end.

    michael Sun Mar 17
    Rated as: 1/5
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  • Michelle Williams is really charming as Glinda and the opening black and white titles and the whirlwind are outstanding in 3D. The 3D is used with real effectiveness. But it's really just a continuity movie and with wretched dialogue. For a kids film, it's disappointingly sluggish and disappointingly Disney. The character of Oz hasn't been thought out and James Franco - looking beautiful throughout, despite the knock knees - is unconvincing as either a showman or a Lothario at the start. The film wants to make his reformation its heart but fails because the premise is sunk. It's not awful but it achieves comparatively little in the 2 hours its on.

    Phil Ince Thu Mar 14
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  • ... as far as a PG fantasy film featuring mostly human actors goes I liked it. If you've got kids in the 9-12 age bracket - if they're anything like the twelve year old boy I overheard commenting to his dad as they left - it's worth the price of admission. It was good to finally see Zac Braff in a mainstream film, and Mila Kunis is hot - green or not. Don't be put off by the review. It's basically a kids' film and from that point of view (rather than judging it on 'canon' and the films that came before) I think it works rather well.

    Kerry Sun Mar 10
    Rated as: 3/5
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  • Very poor and disappointing. The plot and characterisation is full of cliches and Franco as a lead is difficult to warm to. Kunis looks great in a pair of skin tight leather trousers but to no great surprise the American actress Williams, dressed in white, plays the heroine while the British Weisz conveniently dressed in black is the villainess. A cliche as tired and obvious as the film. Worth two stars, just.

    Ian Sat Mar 9
    Rated as: 2/5
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  • If anything the review gives the film more credit than it deserves. This is a thoroughly disappointing film. It is like a supermodel, looks great and classy but is shallow and empty. Kunis takes over the mantle of pretty woman in unnecessarily tight leather trousers from Gemma Arterton in the recent Hansel and Gretel film. Franco as a lead is poor and difficult to warm to much like the film. Braff's flying monkey cum servant is no donkey from Shrek as a character. At my local Cineworld Disney had obviously splashed the cash from the marketing budget with yellow brick road and large displays. They probably realise it must do well this weekend if they are to get their money back. Don't bother with the 3D as apart from a few flying spears and monkeys coming out of the screen at you it isn't worth it and in places it is out of focus. Just to put the icing on the cake and to no great surprise Williams, the American Princess dressed all in white, plays the heroine to Weiss's black clad English villainess. A cliche as obvious as much of the rest of film. Just worth two stars.

    Ian Sat Mar 9
    Rated as: 2/5
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  • There is going to be the inevitable comparison to the 1939 wizard of oz... even though oz the great the powerful comes from a different book written by L Frank Baum. There are actually 14 books in that series... but it won't matter... this movie will have to be great to pass muster - not just good. if it falls flat - forget about any more big productions of Oz... The original movie will cast a very long shadow over any attempt to match it. It will take genus to do it - and not sure Ramai or the writers are of that caliber.

    joe Mon Feb 4
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  • Some people are saying that this is a remake and it isn't very good. It is not a remake of the original! It is a prequel, and if the trailer is anything to go by, it should be a good one. Modern day fantasy movies are always trying to use the latest technology and amaze the audience, and this is no different (With the Producer of Alice in Wonderland). Overall, I think it may do well.

    Irum Kauser Sun Nov 18 2012
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