![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Oz the Great and Powerful
Mar. 9th, 2013 11:57 pmI saw Oz the Great and Powerful today. It was pretty and nice and sometimes even entertaining but I spent the whole film wanting to punch Oz.
Unfortunately, the movie wants us to like Oz. We are to find him endearing or something because he glues the China Girl back together but he is a smug asshole for the most of the film and even when he did his trick and save everyone I still wanted to punch him. He certainly didn't deserve a happy ending. James Franco's smug grin doesn't help either.
I also generally agree with the Jezabel complains. Although both Evanora and Glinda use Oz for their own purposes they are still left being the power behind the throne instead of ruling themselves because prophecy says Wizard will rule Oz (the last Wizard said so). Even thought both witches are capable of ruling on their own and, in this movie version, Glinda also has the right to the throne. In the books it was a misunderstanding that gave Wizard the throne - he used the name that rulers of Oz always had so everyone though he was to be one and there was no one else to take the throne. And he was rather nice and wanted to go home just like Dorothy did. And Glinda never challenged the Wizard because she was too busy looking for the rightful heir - Ozma. But the real rulers and the real protagonists of the stories were female. Here he it all felt much more unfair. All this was annoying but the thing that really made me angry was the way Theodora was basically sacrificed to teach Oz a lesson. One last girl he scammed to fall for him before he got his happy ending with Glinda. But in the end he felt bad about Theodora, isn't that enough?
Other unfortunate implications - all the girls Oz cones are dark haired - only Wanda and Glinda don't get the music box treatment and they are both played by Michelle Williams. So we get both the tired trope of blonde = good and the one worth of real feelings and the creepy moment when you have to wonder if he truly loves Glinda or if he is just nicer to her because she is just like that one girl he actually cared about - only cooler.
The film is very kid friendly - there is no more then little kissing and there is very little violence (good people of Oz are forbidden from taking a life). It also uses 3D very well - I left didn't have headache and it's not too dark and it looks very, very pretty. The plot itself is OK but very, very predictable - it went exactly as I thought it would go (I felt like a psychic). However, it's hard to really like a story when you dislike the main hero. Everyone else was fine and I would like this movie much better if there was no Wizard in it. In fact now I want a prequel just about the 3 witches.
I also generally agree with the Jezabel complains. Although both Evanora and Glinda use Oz for their own purposes they are still left being the power behind the throne instead of ruling themselves because prophecy says Wizard will rule Oz (the last Wizard said so). Even thought both witches are capable of ruling on their own and, in this movie version, Glinda also has the right to the throne. In the books it was a misunderstanding that gave Wizard the throne - he used the name that rulers of Oz always had so everyone though he was to be one and there was no one else to take the throne. And he was rather nice and wanted to go home just like Dorothy did. And Glinda never challenged the Wizard because she was too busy looking for the rightful heir - Ozma. But the real rulers and the real protagonists of the stories were female. Here he it all felt much more unfair. All this was annoying but the thing that really made me angry was the way Theodora was basically sacrificed to teach Oz a lesson. One last girl he scammed to fall for him before he got his happy ending with Glinda. But in the end he felt bad about Theodora, isn't that enough?
Other unfortunate implications - all the girls Oz cones are dark haired - only Wanda and Glinda don't get the music box treatment and they are both played by Michelle Williams. So we get both the tired trope of blonde = good and the one worth of real feelings and the creepy moment when you have to wonder if he truly loves Glinda or if he is just nicer to her because she is just like that one girl he actually cared about - only cooler.
The film is very kid friendly - there is no more then little kissing and there is very little violence (good people of Oz are forbidden from taking a life). It also uses 3D very well - I left didn't have headache and it's not too dark and it looks very, very pretty. The plot itself is OK but very, very predictable - it went exactly as I thought it would go (I felt like a psychic). However, it's hard to really like a story when you dislike the main hero. Everyone else was fine and I would like this movie much better if there was no Wizard in it. In fact now I want a prequel just about the 3 witches.
