This is gonna be a quick one. I didn’t finish the movie because the disc Netflix sent me was scratched or something and it kept skipping about halfway through, but I feel comfortable writing a review because up until that point, the film felt super awkward and boring.
So many of the actors are a terrible fit for this. I honestly don’t know what Sam Raimi and Disney were going for, but it seemed like they wanted to capture the time period (early 1900s) and the child-like wonder once we get to Oz. They failed at both. James Franco, Zack Braff, and Mila Kunis are terribly miscast in this. They are all very modern actors that have no idea how to act like they’re from down home Kansas in the 1900s, or in Kunis’ case, how to be a somewhat ethereal, aloof witch in a magical land. They all need to stick to the romcoms and other modern film tropes. Michelle Williams, on the other hand, proves her talent by being the only person I actually bought in this movie, both as the small town girl in black-and-white Kansas and as the regal Good Witch. But one role can’t carry a film like this.
I don’t want to go too deeply into the plot considering I only witnessed half of it, but it’s definitely kid stuff. Good vs Evil, hero rescuing damsel in distress, jealous girlfriend type stuff. Nothing you haven’t seen before.
The other big problem was just that everything was CG. EVERYTHING. Greg Nicotero is credited for make-up effects, and this was probably the easiest job he’s ever had. There were no practical effects in the environment and no practical effects in the creatures. That’s what made the transition to color so cool in the original, there was something other-wordly but still realistic about the setting. Here, everything looks glossy and fake. At the end of the day, this is a kid’s movie. But that doesn’t excuse lazy storytelling, bad acting, and shoddy special effects.
Positives:
-kids might still find something to enjoy
-Michelle Williams
-Mila Kunis in leather pants
Negatives:
-bad acting overall
-cliched story
-bad CG kills all sense of wonder
Score:
4/10
not even she can save this one…