Oz the Great and Powerful is an entertaining and visually captivating "unofficial" prequel to The Wizard of Oz. Although the scary parts are probably too intense for the very young, most everyone else should find plenty to enjoy in this $215 million Disney spectacle.
Rachel Weisz provides a particularly well-nuanced performance as Evanora, a malevolent and deceitful Wicked Witch. Michelle Williams is guileless and charming as Glinda the Good Witch, a role for which she seems utterly perfect. Mila Kunis is at first winsome, and later ruthlessly implacable, as the grievously betrayed Theodora, Wicked Witch of the West.
James Franco, adept at insincerity, seems a bit off-key in those moments when the plot doesn't call for it. Bruce Campbell is wasted and mostly unrecognizable as an over-costumed Winkie Gate Keeper.
In the end clever contrivance and showbiz spectacle trump real but strangely artless black magic--an unsurprising subtext affirming entertainment industry sensibilities and bemeaning the threat of true wickedness.
Oz the Great and Powerful