MOVIE REVIEW
The Rev. Willis R. Schwichtenberg, Pastor
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Freeport, Illinois
“Oz The Great and Powerful” March 2013
This is a tough review to write because some of you will misunderstand where I am going with this review.
First of all, I like the movie. I really did. I’m not sure what we were expecting but we both liked the movie and Alice thought it was one of the best she has ever seen.
Yes, the movie was excellent and the special effects were astounding. We saw it in 3D but I don’t think that made that big a difference. It’s interesting that “Les Miserables” was criticized for its close-up shots. I think some will go in the other direction and criticize this movie for its wide angle shots. Some of this you will never be able to appreciate on video unless you have the biggest video screen in the world. Like a lot of good movies, I don’t think that the special effects made the movie.
The movie was sort of an off version of the “Wizard of Oz” a favorite scary movie from my childhood. Both start in black and white. Both have “real” world characters who end up in Oz. Both have a great hero (Oz and Dorothy). Both have the small companion (Toto and the China Doll). Both are too violent for younger children. Both have munchkins (though the “new munchkins” are definitely more politically correct.) And both have a “friend” (The Scarecrow and a rescue flying monkey). And both have witches galore. I could go on and on.
Oz (Oscar…played by James Franco) is a charlatan but you cannot help but like and appreciate his trickiness and, ultimately, his good heart. I love the way the two bad witches and the one good witch (I’ll dispense with names) serve as sort of a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz” but I am having some trouble seeing how this movie and the original really fit together. Our great advances in movie technology make almost anything possible and make older movies seem a bit quaint.
On the negative: Wait a minute…I said I liked the movie. Isn’t that enough? However, when I looked on the Internet I found several negative reviews. Some of them mused on how great the movie could have been had it been directed or edited better. What are they looking for? Did they want Disney to spend another $200 million on making the movie even better? Where does this technology end? When will they ever be happy?
We were happy. We left the movie thinking we had seen a really good movie. No heavy plot. No excessive hidden messages. No real “Aha” moments. A nice message. Nothing off color. Sweet innocence (especially with the China Doll). Nifty special effects. Just a really good movie. Isn’t that enough?
