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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 11, 2013 15:03:00 GMT -5
Any reviews?
I have high hopes for this movie.
I love the 1939 original, and I'm not expecting this new film be close to the "greatest movie of all time" -- but I do hope it is good in its own right. I like Sam Raimi as a director.
It looks like it is going to be a departure from the books, with a different backstory -- for example, in the books the Wizard has the inhabitants of Oz build the Emerald City, but in this prequel movie, it looks like Emerald City already exists when he arrives.
And not adhering to the books is just fine if this is being done instead as a prequel to the 1939 movie, which also had some departures from the books. However, if that is the case, that is still odd -- since this movie cannot use some of the imagery that Warner Brothers owns in regards to the 1939 film. The prequel can't use ruby slippers, for example -- they were in the 1939 film, but not in the books, because in the books they were silver shoes. Also, in the books, the Wizard is from Omaha, Nebraska, while in the 1939 film he says near the end that he's an old Kansas man himself, even though his balloon has "Omaha State Fair" printed on it -- but in the prequel movie it seems he is from Kansas also.
So it's a prequel to a movie it can't use imagery from.
Odd.
Too bad they didn't get Robert Downey, Jr. to play the Wizard. Now he is a believable mountebank, and a closer visual fit to a younger Frank Morgan, IMO: another great character actor and chameleon with a twinkle in his eye.
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Post by geneweigel on Mar 11, 2013 15:45:20 GMT -5
Part of me doesn't want to touch it with a 1000 foot pole but the bored part of me says give it a chance; How bad can it be? etc. I like the original book and I got a replica of the original for my daughter when she was little. What a difference to back when I I read it plain in paperback novel form. Its like night and day. The illustrations are almost plugged in to the text. I like the musical aspect of the original movie and its great in its own way. I can recall having dreams of walking down that road in the film that haunt me to this day. In a strange way, I've always had a desire to have a controlled LSD trip to Oz but unfortunately it would end horribly with sexual intercourse with Margaret Hamilton as "Cora the Grocer" from the Maxwell House commercials. Nooooooooo!!!! Just kidding!!!
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Post by Scott on Mar 11, 2013 20:15:02 GMT -5
I loved it. Saw the 3D version. James Franco isn't a real strong leading man, but it is a good story, and they do incorporate other Oz elements from the books.
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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 12, 2013 7:53:06 GMT -5
Margaret Hamilton reprised her role as the Wicked Witch on Sesame Street in 1976, but evidently it scared kids so badly that parents wrote in complaining and it was never aired again. In this episode, she threatens to turn Big Bird into a feather duster. Oscar the Grouch admires her.
So now "Meg Griffin" from Family Guy is playing the Wicked Witch of the West? That would be a hard role to live up to.
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Post by geneweigel on Mar 12, 2013 14:10:03 GMT -5
I don't think I've ever featured a "streamlined" witch in an AD&D game before like the one from the 39 Oz film. The book version is more seeming with the notion for wearing odd accoutrements just like a D&D character adjusting their "look" for a powerful magic item.
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Post by GRWelsh on Feb 25, 2014 12:58:02 GMT -5
I finally saw this movie. I thought it was okay. It's not worth writing a long review about. I think it suffers from the "funny companions who aren't funny" problem with the talking monkey, the China Doll and the grumpy munchkin. Other than that, I thought the cast and visual effects were decent. But I wouldn't call this one of Raimi's better movies -- definitely not on par with Spider-Man or Spider-Man 2.
This movie occupies an odd niche, because it WANTS to be a prequel to the 1939 film, but legally can't be -- so it has to skirt around that. And like the 1939 film, there are departures from the book series.
I'm going to content myself with the fact that this could have been a lot worse -- they could have went with that WICKED crap!
I have to admit, there were some parts of this movie that made me smile. Even though this movie is not a musical, at one point the munchkins try to break out into a song, but the Wizard cuts them short.
There are a lot of things that link this movie to the 1939 film, rather than the books:
- This story is set in 1905 -- "years" before Dorothy gets to Oz -- but the first Wizard of Oz book was published in 1900. - Characters in Kansas have parallels in Oz. - The Wizard is from Kansas, not Omaha Nebraska. - Starts in black and white, switches to color when the Wizard gets to Oz. - The Emerald City already exists when the Wizard gets there; in the books he helped build it. - The Emerald City is actually green, rather than just appearing as such through green googles. - You can see "horses of a different color" grazing outside the Emerald City. - Glinda flies around in bubbles. - Glinda is the daughter of the last Wizard King of Oz, in the books there is no mention made of Glinda being related. - The Wicked Witches are sisters. - One Wicked Witch gets green skin, and looks like the one from the 1939 film but with a "legally acceptable" different shade of green.
So, this movie is technically (legally) not a prequel to the 1939 film, but (wink wink) -- you get the point.
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Post by geneweigel on Feb 25, 2014 14:15:51 GMT -5
My wife came home with such a negative review, when she went with her girlfriends and the kids, that I've been reluctant. They were very opinionated about it, she said "I usually like that guy and love THE WIZARD OF OF OZ movie but it was stupid and that girl [Kunis] I can't stand." and the kids were saying they wished they saw something else.
I've been giving everything a chance lately, but the local channels have been pumping up that WICKED on Broadway commercial every day and it sours me out on checking out the Raimi film.
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Post by GRWelsh on Feb 25, 2014 16:24:08 GMT -5
Yeah, that's how I feel -- I've been trying to give things more of a chance. I'm trying not to turn into "the old guy that hates everything." Either everything sucks lately, or I'm turning into an old guy and that is making it seem to me like everything sucks. Maybe I am being ridiculous in setting the bar so high for something like the new Oz movie, since it just a kids' movie. And yet -- I love the 1939 film, and it is just a kids' movie...
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