This is the first official film I watched in 2013. I was lucky to be joined by my wife and two nieces aged 14 and 17. It starred James Franco as Oz, Mila Kunis as Theodora, and Michelle Williams as Glinda. I guess you could say this is a sort of prequel to the original movie, “The Wizard of Oz”, which was originally released in 1939. It stayed true to the original during the beginning of the film it was both in black and white and was in full-screen mode. It starts out with Franco or Oz trying to make a living by doing corny magic tricks and portrays him as sort of a womanizer or at least as a man who breaks women’s hearts. As the storm draws closer, Oz is being pursued by a girlfriend’s angry father and ends up jumping into a hot air balloon to escape. He is whisked away in a tornado and when he emerges, he is in Oz. At this point, the film switches to widescreen and into full-color mode. I asked my nieces if they noticed and they did notice the color change but not the switch to full screen. Kids are so oblivious these days. When he wakes up, he is in water and this is where he meets Mila Kunis’ character, Theodora. She was not as attractive as I normally find her, but I think this may have been by design since she turns out to be on the side of evil. She brings him to the emerald City where he is introduced to Theodora’s sister Evanora played by Rachel Weisz. She turns out to be the Evil witch, who turns Theodora to the evil side. Oz is mistaken as a wizard and is told if he wants to claim the throne, he will have to defeat the evil witch. He is told the evil witch is in the north. It turns out the north witch was played by Michelle Williams, Glinda the good. She was radiant and very beautiful, perfectly cast as the good witch. I won’t completely spoil the ending but I will say I was disappointed, and a bit confused as to why it didn’t end with Oz waking up, back to reality, just like the original. Having said that, this was an enjoyable journey, clean fun for the whole family.
Highly recommended.
****
