Customer Reviews

Oz the Great and Powerful (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray) [Region A & B & C]

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Fantastic in 3D totally love it and its such a well thought out film. Totally watch it again. Such a great family film.

I unapologetically loved this film! I've never been a friend of Dorothy, however the sheer spectacle, joyous performances, and sense of fun that exude from Sam Raimi's latest offering must surely be appreciated by all but the most cynical viewer. James Franco's leering con artist is transformed into an honest man through his bizarre experiences in the magical Land of Oz, after being whisked there by a freak tornado. Mila Kunis has to be the sexiest witch ever committed to celluloid - for the first part of the film anyhow, and Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams are both perfectly cast as her fellow enchantresses. Add in Zach Braff's lachrymose flying monkey, a sentient china doll, and a host of nefarious Emerald City guardians, and you have a movie that warms the heart through and through, whilst also having plenty of tongue-in-cheek humour to lessen the inherent cheesiness of the script; great stuff!

A few decades back now, Disney tried a sequel to the Wizard of Oz, in the shape of Return To Oz [DVD] [1985]. Now they've brought in Director Sam Raimi to go the opposite way. To do a prequel.

The story of this movie takes place before the Wizard of Oz. It's all about the Wizard himself. And how he came to be there.

Therefore fans of the Frank L. Baum books will not find much they'd recognise from those in here, aside from the setting and certain characters, since this is an all new story that tries it's best to fit the style of the world Frank L. Baum created. If you're a literary purist then whether or not this succeeds at doing that will be a matter of individual opinion.

The Wizard is actually Oscar Diggs [James Franco]. When we meet him it's in America in 1905, and he's a small time carnival magician, with somewhat dubious ethics and dreams of making it big.

Like the original Wizard of Oz movie, this has all the scenes in our world filmed in black and white. It also adopts a few of the technical tricks and styles of much older cinema in these moments. Which is a very nice touch.

James Franco does manage to carry the film very well and makes for a decent lead right from the off.

Fate conspires to bring him to Oz. Which is where it goes into colour and more modern cinema styles. Making the acquaintance of two witches [Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz] and a flying monkey, he finds that everyone is expecting the arrival of a great wizard. And that Oz is a land with problems.

Setting out to deal with these, he picks up another travelling companion along the way. But who can he trust? And he can take this opportunity to be the great man he's always dreamed of becoming?

The story of this is obvious from the start. A few movies have done the story of a would be great man who gets into a situation where they can become one, boasts, lets people down, and then comes back and saves the day. But this doesn't follow all the story beats from that style, so that does give it points for originality.

The supporting cast are all pretty good. Some of the cgi creations work extremely well. And there are enough twists and turns in the plot and character development to keep it all moving along very nicely, all in time for a decent finale.

It's definitely worth it for the visuals, though. Which make Oz every bit the colourful and eye catching land that it should be. There's always something new coming along on screen to capture your attention.

Certain things and characters can't appear in this due to copyright reasons [the fact that a studio other than Disney holds the rights to the Wizard of Oz movie] but you might get into this enough to not miss them too much.

Any great fantasy should keep you spellbound all the way through and leave you appreciative by the end. When I saw this in a rather crowded cinema, most of the audience burst into - genuine - applause at the end. So this would certainly seem to do that job. There may be one or two moments that very young viewers might find scary, but not too many. This is a very good effort at creating a magical and fantastical cinema experience. Which makes it worth 4/5.

Older viewers who are familiar with the Director's work might wonder if a few of the actors whom he usually uses crop up in here. Just keep your eyes peeled and listen carefully....

The dvd has the following language and subtitle options:

Languages: English, Russian, Ukranian.

Subtitles: English, Estonian, Greek, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Ukranian.

The disc begins with quite a few trailers. These can be skipped by pressing the next button on the dvd remote control. You can see all of them in the sneak peeks section of the dvd main menu anyhow.

There are just two extras:

A four minute long reel of outtakes. The sound quality on some of these isn't great. But a few are quite funny.

Walt Disney and the Road to Oz. A nine minute long feature about Disney's original attempt to make an Oz movie back in the 1950's. This is absolutely fascinating hitherto generally unknown movie history. If you're into that, it's well worth a watch.

Some directors are easily recognisable. They have certain tricks and styles which are evident throughout all their work. Others are well camouflaged and can flit between genre to genre without anyone noticing. With Oz The Great and Powerful, Sam Raimi is firmly in the recognisable category. This is no bad thing as his camera sweeps and flies across some lush vistas showing off the beautiful landscapes of Oz.

There are moments of horror and moments of humour. Echoes of Spiderman and Drag Me To hell are littered throughout as well as some of his trademark moves displayed in The Evil Dead. This film is simply stunning and gorgeous to look at throughout. In particular the china girl is a marvel in special effects. So much care and details has gone in to making Oz look superb.

So it is a shame that the whole experience is rather a hollow one. The initial thrill of going back to Oz is quickly dispensed with when you quickly realise a lot of this is style over substance. It is clearly made to take of advantage of the 3d and brings back memories of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland with its tone and style.

James Franco plays his part well but ultimately the character is not the most likable. Also the story itself is not the most exciting. We all know the Wizard of Oz is not an actual wizard, so there is no build up to the powers he may, or in the case may not possess. The final confrontation is fun but has no sense of danger.

Rachel Weisz phones in her performance. She doesn't offer much in the way of substance. This is firmly Oz and Theodora's show.

There are, however, some very good points. Michelle Williams as Gilda is superb and brings a gentle and sweet nature to her character. Mila Kunis is equally as engaging as Theodora especially when her character goes through a dramatic change and that alone helps the film step up another gear.

It's great to see the Munchkins and The Emerald City again and the opening twenty minutes filmed in sepia is a great hark back to 1939.

All in all not a bad film with some great moments and is visually arresting. Stunning to look at but there isn't much going on underneath the surface. It misses a heart, brains and some courage. Light entertainment.

Raimi and Oz sounded like a match made in heaven. But despite a stong start, once we got to the wonderful land of Oz the movie seemed to lose heart. There are some very strong moments, great visuals and great characters, particulary the china girl which I felt captured the essence of Oz. But overall it lacks depth, scale and has little sense of wonder, indeed a lot of the CGI becomes dull and unengaging. As a result it becomes one of those movies that while perfectly enjoyable, you're almost relieved when its over, in that regard its not unlike that other Disney venture "Return to Oz". Could have been much better, but despite being disapointing, like everthing Raimi does its still worth a watch

First mention must go to the soundtrack on this blu ray. If you have surround sound then select the 7.1 option and sit back as it fills your room and uses the entire sound field. This disc is destined to be one of those reference discs that people use to show off their system.
I was a little disappointed that it was presented in the letterbox format but this is a film worth getting in 3D if you have that capability and I watched it in 2D! All the way through the film my wife kept saying 'This would look great in 3D'. Needless to say its on my 3D wish list.
The story is by now well known to all potential viewers, the tale of how the Wizard of Oz came to be. Oz never looked so good and the designers have been true to the original in their portrayal of its unconventional inhabitants with one exception, the flying monkeys are way scarier than the original ones. Put that down to our loss of innocence perhaps.
James Franco sleazes well as the magical conman who comes good in the end and the ladies who play the three witches are all excellent. Michelle Williams as Glenda the Good Witch being so sweet that she demonstrates why so many men prefer a little touch of badness as amply displayed by Rachel Weisz.
Overall a very good film but quite a long one at 2hrs 16 minutes, set aside a whole evening for this one.

Perfect for all the family (although some slightly scary flying monkey scenes!!).
Great price, and fantastic 3d effects.
Well worth it.

I'd like to start by saying this is the first film I've watched on DVD and been annoyed I didn't bother seeing it in 3D at the cinema.
Visually it is stunning and you can see how the 3D aspects were built into the story not just tacked on. Unlike other visual show pieces, like the god-awful Avatar, this does have some charm beyond its looks.
Story wise the film is in a difficult place as it tries to find a place in the vast landscape of the Oz cannon, from Frank Baum's original novels to the 1939 film classic, from the recent Gregory McGuire books to the stage musical of said books. The problem is that we have too many per-conceived ideas of what should happen in the story, and while it does well to tie all the threads together satisfactorily, it means it fails to spread its own monkey wings and fly.
Still a great film but maybe not the classic it could of been.
Decent extras.

A worthy prequel to a classic film. Ties into it very nicely. A great, funny and enjoyable adventure that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Fantastic in 3D!! The image completely jumps off the screen.....absolutely stunning and magical and very pretty! The story was very good too and would really recommend it...so many stars appear in it, it's a real spectacular... We loved it and will definitely watch again.