Internet Movie Database
CinemaSins Movie Reviews
Loosely based on the childrne’s book series by L. Frank Baum and others
The previews of this movie were really good, but of course these days movie trailers are deliberately orchestrated to be as appealing as possible, even when the movie is a dog.
Which this one is.
And it could have been good…if…
- The script hadn’t been so leaden. Oh my god, what awful writing. It was just painful at some points. Especially when it was supposed to be amusing and witty.
- They hadn’t wasted good people on the above mentioned leaden script- Rachel Weisz and James Franco deserved better. As did the audience. (I give a pass to Bruce Campbell, since he is always in Sam Raimi movies and his part was tiny and silly.)
- They hadn’t gone WAAAAY too far with the ‘normal world in black and white, Oz in color’ tradition. It’s one thing to show that it’s a fantasy world by doing this, but they cranked up the orange and cyan to absolutely painful levels. There was no need to do this, they just did it to make it look more otherworldly. Ouch.
- There had been no cute talking animal sidekick. I will keep saying it til someone listens to me: in most movies, a cute talking animal sidekick is the kiss of death. Especially a flying monkey, oh my god. Just painful.
- They had left out the Benjie-peril. Seriously? threatening characters with death that the whole audience KNOWS will be alive in the next movie? gaaaah. As if we cared about any of these characters anyway.
- They had had someone who had a modicum, a scintillum, even an IOTA of acting talent playing Glinda. Again, painful. Just painful.
okay, I’m done here. Bad enough I was stuck at the Red Cross for two hours with needles in both arms watching this turkey. My hope is that I have saved you from the same.
You can thank me later.
theotterlimits 