Oz the Great and Powerful has finally sold me
I was wary and cautious, but now I want to see Oz the Great and Powerful. Whether or not it will be good, I do not know, but it will be interesting at least. There is enough imagery that can work both with the 1939 film classic and with the original books. There are flying monkeys both good and evil, witchcraft and magic, and even that city made of ceramics that I sort of vaguely remember but might be confusing them with Utensia and other Oz cities I remember more clearly. Time to reread all the books thanks to the magic of public domain! Raimi is a good story teller when he’s not trying to jam too much into things thanks to studio interference. Let’s just ignore the fact the landscape vaguely resembles that Alice in Wonderland flick from a few years ago. As an Oz snob, I shall be looking at this with a more picky eye than usual. And if this films sucks I’m going to take my army of kalidahs and woozies and burn down Hollywood. Again.
Disney’s fantastical adventure “Oz The Great and Powerful,” directed by Sam Raimi, imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum’s beloved character, the Wizard of Oz. When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot–fame and fortune are his for the taking–that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity–and even a bit of wizardry–Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.
Oz the Great and Powerful stars James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, and Zach Braff and directed by Sam Raimi
Categories: Movie News Tags: James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Sam Raimi, Wizard of Oz, Zach Braff
Eragon (Review)
Eragon
2006
Directed by Stefen Fangmeier
I have just seen the greatest film of the last 50 years: STAR WARS!!! Unfortunately, it was buried beneath a train wreck of a movie called Eragon. Eragon is based on a book written by Christopher Paolini, who started on it when he was 15 and got it published by age 18. When reprinted, he became a best-selling author at age 19. Sadly, his novel is not unique, and is in fact just Star Wars meets Lord of the Rings, with a few references to Dragonriders of Pern and Robert Jordan novels. It is less of a theft and more of a wholesale rape, as what he does take isn’t turned into a brilliant work of fantasy, but just some fanboy wankery hardly worthy of posting on bad fan-fiction sites on the internet. Paolini managed to pimp out his age (due to finishing home schooling early he was free to do a book tour of schools while dressed in some knight costume) to successfully get his book republished. This shows us that you don’t need originality to succeed in the world, only ambition to promote yourself and your repackaged ideas. Sure, Star Wars borrows from Kurasawa and mythology canons, but it melds together into an interesting story that reshaped science fiction movies. Eragon becomes a mess, complete with shots identical to those in Star Wars and others, and manages to even screw up copying from Star Wars correctly. George Lucas never ruined Star Wars this bad with Jar Jar Binks, but Paolini enters new territories. So in a way it is ground-breaking, nothing has ever sucked so much like this before.
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