Oz the Great and Powerful Reviews
Spectrum (St. George, Utah)
True...the odds were stacked against Raimi in his film that has some moments but hardly seems momentous.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
Film Racket
big and splashy but tin-eared
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Triple J
Stunning visuals, some suprising plot twists, dreadfully mediocre dialogue delivered by a woefully miscast James Franco.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
MovieCrypt.com
Sam Raimi has managed to recapture the feel and charm of the original 'Wizard of Oz'... and that may be the greatest compliment of all.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4.0
Cinemalogue.com
The script is the real problem, lacking in humor and wit (not to mention jaunty musical numbers) and emphasizing the type of sensory overload that seems to pass for family entertainment these days.
Movie Habit
Raimi tries to go all in, but the update can't match the character of the original
Movie City News
There were things that offered promise... but one after the other, they blended into the blandness of the storytelling.
Q Network Film Desk
That the female roles are the most memorable is intriguing since Oz the Great and Powerful is arguably at heart a broadside against male chauvinism
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Tampa Bay Times
It took courage to believe anything could and should be added to The Wizard of Oz. It took brains to create such a sumptuous fantasia with pixels and keyboard swipes. Now, if it only had a heart.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
Movie Talk
When a movie is as beloved as The Wizard of Oz, making a prequel would seem a foolhardy enterprise. Put one foot on the Yellow Brick Road and you risk stepping on your viewers' memories and dreams. Yet Raimi rises to the challenge with dash and dazzle.
KC Active
Oz the Great and Powerful should probably have been titled Oz the so-so and Kind of Entertaining or Oz, At Least It's Better than The Wonderful Land of Oz.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
Rip It Up
You've got to love any movie that features an army of rollicking Munchkins getting halfway through a Danny Elfman song before, basically, they're told to shut up.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
3AW
[Director Sam] Raimi fills every square centimetre of the frame with aggressively attractive images...Simply put, Oz is simply beautiful to behold.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
MovieJuice!
It's Mila Kunis! And she's dressed like she took the wrong tornado on the way to F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
The Standard
Oz The Great And Powerful is as good as it could be.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Needcoffee.com
You know, its heart was in the right place.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
2UE That Movie Show
Just like Dorothy's technicolour journey before, this trip through Oz is once again smeared by this ill deserving charlatan.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
Movies With Butter
If you liked Hugo you'll be pleased with Oz's coterie of zoopraxiscopes and praxinoscopes and zoetropes (Oh, my!).
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
The hackneyed message is about the importance of 'belief,' but in what? The idea that even the most talented and impressive women should move aside if a man wants to be in charge?
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
