Movie Review: Oz, The Great and Powerful

So that was interesting.

 So I like Oz. The Great and Powerful, but most of what I like about it is metatexual. The movie runs on dramatic irony.

See ultimately the plot is run by the three witches, Oz serving as finger that could tip the scale in their larger conflict. True to form Oz is the least interesting aspect of his named movie, being an impotent two bit huckster.

No the interesting bit is watching Oscar interact with the witches. Why? Because we the audience know that these are the same three witches by different names in The Wizard of Oz. And we also know that at any given time there's a 2/3 chance he's talking to an evil one.  So what's going to happen when that shoe drops?

And that's where I feel the movie drops the ball. While the eventual battle is engaging I'm not invested enough in it after the big reveal. That said I haven't heard Mila Kunis scream like that since the stupidity of Kelso.





There isn't really much going on in the movie for me other than the whose who question.

Beyond that the movie doesn't really explain well enough why their fighting over the emerald throne for me to really care. I mean yes power, glory and revenge are plausible, then again I never really got why everyone hated the The Wicked Witch  of the West in the first one. I don't condone revenge killings but without her stoking fires Dorthy would have gotten  (did get) away with cold blooded murder or at least manslaughter. You would think Glinda, would hold her at least a little accountable for killing her sister but nah, s'all good. Everybody hated her anyway. You go girl.

 ...

Well then. No justice no peace! Go forth my pretties. Fly! Fly! Da Da Da Duh Da- Da Da Da Duh Da Duuuu

Heck you could make a more plausible argument that this whole thing was a decades long gambit so Glinda could be the only witch standing.

Anyway, motivations have always been wierd and in this movie our Wicked Witch of the East remains a cipher. Back up she murdered her father. Wait. What? Why? How? When? Nobody noticed it was her? Huh. That's a lot of questions I wish I had answers to. That's a mystery deserving of a Tin Man.

That said seeing the whole ignore the man behind the curtain thing with all it's spectacle again was fun. And it's also nice to see that rather than cop out and resolve this thing they left it right where they should. All three witches still plotting against each other.