Oz the Great and Powerful

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Michael

Well, it's much better than Alice in Wonderland thank god. And It's definitely a Sam Raimi film. He make those flying Baboons pretty scary, and has a lot of fun with the Balloon ride to Oz. Some patented Evil Dead style whoosh pans following the sounds of something unseen, which had me giggling to myself for a while. As did the very brief Bruce Campbell cameo.

The story is nothing overly imaginative, they have some fun playing with the expectations of just who is the wicked witch but apart from that it's pretty much what you'd expect the prequel story to be, after having gathered as much from the other stories and tellings.

But it does look incredible. And Raimi doing 3D is truly something to behold. The creation of the little China Girl is just beautiful as well. All the costumes, hair and make-up are outstanding and pretty outrageous too. The prosthetic face for the evil green witch was a little odd though.

James Franco was fine as the wizard, but he never really popped for me, however Michelle Williams' take on Glinda was just delightful. And Rachel Weisz is great fun to watch too, especially in the latter half of the film. 

Danny Elfman's music sound like you'd expect it to.

A very expensive looking movie. Thankfully it's entertaining, but only really whilst watching it. There's not much you'll be able to take away from this one but there's some fun to be had.