I was genuinely curious to see what Disney could do; Story, plotline, Character development. As for visuals, I expected nothing less than "Alice in Wonderland".
Disney has this problem of taking on massive projects and failing miserably. Ok, so Pirates did fare OK, but after the second installment, it began to lose steam really fast. by the end of the third, I was done with Jack and Barbosa and Will. Putting it bluntly, Disney goes too far, reaches too hig and often falls short. Just to give you an idea of where my expectations were, I knew that this could be good or it could be terrible, with only a little middle ground for mediocre at best.
Unlike most people, who want to be surprised and amazed, I watched every trailer and read several critiques on the film. As with any Disney LAF, they were mixed reviews. The trailers gave you stunning views of the CGI world of OZ, plenty of the action shots, and a touch of the "love story".
At this point, I was now ready to view the film for my-self, so I trucked my family to our Local Carmike 6 Cinema....I will NOT go into detail about the awful experience we had or the horrific service, just state that we will NOT be returning there to view anything. Ever. MOVEING ON!
As best, I found it to be decent for anyone under the age of 14. The story is about a 2 bit hack circus magician/con artist with a lustful eye for things beyond his reach; money, power, fame and women. He's thrust into a "fairytale" world (by a tornado, no less) and meets up with Theodora. Props to the Casting director for giving us a least some beautiful faces to look at - Mila Kunis is hot, and as her sister, Evanora, Rachel Weisz is wickedly sexy. The sisters are predictable, and so is the story. Boy meets girl, he likes her, she likes him, tells him too much, sister is jealous, plots and schemes to remove boy from picture and it goes downhill from there. In between is an adventure through this CGI world that is decent....it's not Alice, and it appears the spent most of their budget on the pre-tornado scenes. The faults are with the overuse of green screens and sadly, 90% of ALL movies fall prey to it. It's more budget conscious, this is true, but it lacks definition and the sense of TOTAL immersion you get from location shooting.
That being said, it's nearly impossible to make a fantsay movie without CGI, so it should be seamless. "OZ" is not. IN fact, that was the #1 gripe.
I find that the lack of continuity between character stories and overall plot direction is worse than glaring CGI errors. I can forgive visual artistry if the story is well composed, but this was not.
The directors used to many devices to push the weak story, and gave the audience information, instead of having us work it out on our own; they basically dumbed it down. Do they think us so lacking in invention, imagination, and intelligence? - YES!
Much to the pity of Mr. Baum's work, Disney has produced another "flop".
Disney has this problem of taking on massive projects and failing miserably. Ok, so Pirates did fare OK, but after the second installment, it began to lose steam really fast. by the end of the third, I was done with Jack and Barbosa and Will. Putting it bluntly, Disney goes too far, reaches too hig and often falls short. Just to give you an idea of where my expectations were, I knew that this could be good or it could be terrible, with only a little middle ground for mediocre at best.
Unlike most people, who want to be surprised and amazed, I watched every trailer and read several critiques on the film. As with any Disney LAF, they were mixed reviews. The trailers gave you stunning views of the CGI world of OZ, plenty of the action shots, and a touch of the "love story".
At this point, I was now ready to view the film for my-self, so I trucked my family to our Local Carmike 6 Cinema....I will NOT go into detail about the awful experience we had or the horrific service, just state that we will NOT be returning there to view anything. Ever. MOVEING ON!
As best, I found it to be decent for anyone under the age of 14. The story is about a 2 bit hack circus magician/con artist with a lustful eye for things beyond his reach; money, power, fame and women. He's thrust into a "fairytale" world (by a tornado, no less) and meets up with Theodora. Props to the Casting director for giving us a least some beautiful faces to look at - Mila Kunis is hot, and as her sister, Evanora, Rachel Weisz is wickedly sexy. The sisters are predictable, and so is the story. Boy meets girl, he likes her, she likes him, tells him too much, sister is jealous, plots and schemes to remove boy from picture and it goes downhill from there. In between is an adventure through this CGI world that is decent....it's not Alice, and it appears the spent most of their budget on the pre-tornado scenes. The faults are with the overuse of green screens and sadly, 90% of ALL movies fall prey to it. It's more budget conscious, this is true, but it lacks definition and the sense of TOTAL immersion you get from location shooting.
That being said, it's nearly impossible to make a fantsay movie without CGI, so it should be seamless. "OZ" is not. IN fact, that was the #1 gripe.
I find that the lack of continuity between character stories and overall plot direction is worse than glaring CGI errors. I can forgive visual artistry if the story is well composed, but this was not.
The directors used to many devices to push the weak story, and gave the audience information, instead of having us work it out on our own; they basically dumbed it down. Do they think us so lacking in invention, imagination, and intelligence? - YES!
Much to the pity of Mr. Baum's work, Disney has produced another "flop".
The movie packs a nice balance of nostalgia and fun, but also treads just enough new ground to serve as a wonderful companion piece to the 1939 masterpiece. It’s a fun movie, and that’s what matters. Good review.
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