Krishna
This is the story of how the Wizard of Oz came to be. One of the favourite Hollywood themes is prequels – imagining what the story before the story could have been and this follows the trend of the Star Wars series, the X Men and countless other stories (including Young Shakespeare in Love, if you want to include that as well).
The story is about an illusionist Oscar Diggs, or Oz for short (played by James Franco), who has no morals when it comes to women or even trust. He cheats, lies, does whatever it takes to get his hands on money or women or whatever takes his fancy. On top of that is he sleazy and poor and unsuccessful in his magic acts. He tries to seduce the new assistant to the circus owner, Mary.
The magic show is great. When the rigged “volunteer” is made to levitate on the stage with a shroud over her, the audience sees thin wires holding her up. When the audience roars ‘fraud’ and shines a spotlight, they can see the wires clearly. A flustered Oz takes a sword and cuts off the wires but she stays floating and when he removes the cloth, the girl has also vanished. The crowd goes wild. Sweet.
When the philandering of Oz catches up with him with a bevy of ex flames, he runs from the angry husband and others into a balloon and gets caught in a tornado and ends up in Oz.
He is met by a beautiful young girl Theodora (played by Mila Kunis). Let us pause here and look at the impact.
Franco is absolutely perfect as Oz, with that easy charm and a kind of an amused yet kind of playful grin that suggest lack of seriousness in anything. The magic trick scene mentioned above is also spectacular because, knowing Oz by now, you expect him to cheat, and you are with the audience of the show in the movie saying ‘Great, he got caught! He deserves it’ because by this time you hate his sleaziness but then when he totally dumbfounds the audience he leaves you equally dumbfounded. What is more, this totally integrates with the story because, though he is undoubtedly made of a weak moral fiber, you realize that he is indeed very talented.
However, the introduction to Oz is a totally different story. You see strange flowers and animals (reminds you a bit of that hit by James Cameron, Avatar) that never come again and have nothing to do with the story at all. It does establish that he is in a strange land, but it would have been nice to see them woven into the story somehow. (At the very least like the strange creatures that form the entire backdrop to the Star War prequels all through the movies)
Back to the story: Oz uses his considerable experience with women and charms to totally captivate the innocent and inexperienced Theodora, who falls helplessly in love with him. A nice touch, that, when you realize the later part. When he uses the usual charming trick of presenting her the music box that ‘has been for generations in his family’ like he has done for dozens of women before, you really want to strangle him!
The winged talking monkey that Oz rescues and makes into a sidekick (Zack Braff’s voice) is funny. Adds comic relief. The major evil doers are also evil winged monkeys… Go figure.
Her more skeptical elder sister, Evanora, seems to see right through him. When she shows the gold filled room, she sees him revel in his good fortune. She then tells him that she can have all this, provided he kills the Wicked Witch. He goes on a hunt, with the monkey in toe.
There are predictable surprises when he sees the real truth and gets in his mind to help the oppressed people and tries to help them. I lost count of the movies where this happens. Also cliché is the fact that the main female character (the good one) has to face her greatest fears before she can overcome evil. Again, standard Disney format.
However, there are a few surprises about who is evil and who is good, as well as how the Wicked Witch of the West came to be.
I cannot imagine Mila Kunis in the role that they finally gave her, and though she does a valiant attempt to live up to it, it grates.
I know that I have started talking in vague sentences and riddles, but this is just not to have spoilers here that may ruin the twists in the movie.
It is definitely entertaining, with a few cliché scenes but still deserves a 7/10
— Krishna