Oz the Great and Powerful

Many of the reviews I've read thus far comparing this in any way to the classic struck me as unrealistic to completely off base. First off, the original is a musical, this is not. Secondly, the original is much beloved and carries in its support the weight of 3/4 of a century of nostalgia, but folks shouldn't kid themselves about whether or not this new OZ is cheesier. It may not be as good, but it's certainly no cheesier. Visually, of course this is 100% superior and the acting is competent and modern. The story is the back-story of OZ The Great and Powerful and overall is only mildly compelling. The original is quirky, and funny, this one not so much. Frankly, this movie tries to compete more on a Harry Potter front than it does in any way compete or compare to its predecessor. Aside from the story itself being kind of dull, and the movie consequently feeling a bit unnecessarily long, what it really lacked was humor. Zach Braff's monkey character offered the only real laughs and that's primarily because Braff was allowed to ad lib a bit, actually improving the weak screenplay. Unfortunately, the movie needed a lot more of that monkey humor than it had to compensate for the dull drudgery that was much of the screenplay. It was pretty to look at, the 3D was good quality and the nostalgia of the original tale swayed me some in its favor, but three days later as I write this review, I realize that I remember so little of it that even the 6 rating I leaned towards right after the movie was maybe a tad generous since it was a little intense, leaning to scary for the very young age group (4 or 5) that could otherwise have overlooked the weak writing. Still, the young ones would more than likely have been just as, or even more bored than us not so young ones.