Taking inspiration from the series of books by L. Frank Baum The film was nothing short of visually spectacular as we our guided on a journey of clarification as we discover the tale of the man behind the velvet curtain.
Oscar "Oz" Diggs (James Franco) is nothing short of a trickster when it comes to his smoke and mirror carnival magic, that and the way he leads various naive women on soon lands him in a world of trouble. A terrible storm one day provides an accidental escape route from his life of being a borderline crook, giving him the chance to explore, experience and hopefully change his path.
Side Note: A small but appreciative element of the film was the transformation between a 4:3 to 16:9 aspect ratio and respectively from Sepia to Technicolor.
Transported through the eye of a tornado to the world of Oz, Oscar is expected and soon learns that he is the heir to the land.... and it's massive fortune. The tightly attached string comes in the form of defeating the Wicked Witch who is terrorising the land for want of control. Oscar is accompanied on his mission by an indebted flying monkey named Finley (Voiced by Zack Braff) and an Orphaned China Doll (Voiced by Joey King). No mission would be complete without a few twists and turns, half truths and betrayals.
With Vampires Sparkling and Werewolves being nothing more than giant fluffy dogs, then ethereal beauty is only to be expected of the Witches of Oz; Theodora (Mila Kunis) her sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Willaims). But an important fact to remember when watching this film is that; Beauty may only be skin deep but evilness runs to the bone.
Overall the film had the right amount of humour that wasn't kept solely for the titular character to dish out, a range of human, animal and CGI characters that just seemed natural and have I already mentioned how ah-mazing the picture quality was in terms of colour crispness?
It didn't seem as though a lot of thought when into the cause of certain circumstances involving the Witches and respectively, Oz himself making events seem a little melodramatic. I suppose this could be due to the exposure and various conceptions we have to the world and land of Oz through The Wizard Of Oz (1939) and the Broadway musical Wicked (2003). Undoubtedly I wasn't the only confused one when it came to mentally matching up these prequel characters with who they would later become in the stories we all know so well.....Major Headache.
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