Movie Review: ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’

When this reviewer saw the original “Wizard of Oz” at age 6, he became terrified of the Wicked Witch and hid behind the couch.
Movie Review: ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’
Oscar Diggs’s (James Franco) hot-air balloon sails over the landscape of the Land of Oz in the fantasy-adventure “Oz the Great and Powerful.” Courtesy of Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Mark Jackson
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When this reviewer saw the original “Wizard of Oz” at age 6, he became terrified of the Wicked Witch and hid behind the couch. “Oz the Great and Powerful” is, by and large, a decent enough children’s film. But Sam Raimi is a former horror-film director, so certain images made the reviewer, at age 53, feel slightly in need of the couch again.

Of course, today’s 6-year-olds are used to seeing way worse. Still, a 6-year-old, ideally, should have a couch-free existence.

James Franco plays Oscar Diggs, a traveling-circus magician out of Kansas, circa 1905. Being a bit of a rake, he runs afoul of the resident strongman, escapes a beating by jumping in his hot-air balloon, and flies smack into a tornado.

As we all know, anything sucked up in a tornado in Kansas will get deposited in the Land of Oz. As in the original “Oz” film, Kansas is shot in black and white. Oz is multicolored. With multiethnic Munchkins. It’s a new era.

Mark Jackson
Mark Jackson
Film Critic
Mark Jackson is the chief film critic for The Epoch Times. In addition to film, he enjoys martial arts, motorcycles, rock-climbing, qigong, and human rights activism. Jackson earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Williams College, followed by 20 years' experience as a New York professional actor. He narrated The Epoch Times audiobook "How the Specter of Communism is Ruling Our World," available on iTunes, Audible, and YouTube. Mark is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic.
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