Oz the Great and Powerful Reviews

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

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

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.

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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

[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

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+

Oz The Great And Powerful is as good as it could be.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

If you liked Hugo you'll be pleased with Oz's coterie of zoopraxiscopes and praxinoscopes and zoetropes (Oh, my!).

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Franco hasn't mastered dialogue rhythm and there are times when the movie stalls while he gets off a line BUT, the road ahead in this glorious $235M production is lined with gold, like the invention of the exquisite China Girl.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5

There is also a message. This time it is not 'There is no place like home.' It is more like 'If we believe in ourselves and work together, with courage, we can do anything.' Nice message, that.

Full Review | Original Score: B

(James) Franco's performance is one of the better, more genuine things about Disney's given-to-excess adaptation/prequel. Still, the movie is on the whole engaging and entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: B=

This fun-filled, fantastically rendered yellow-brick romp, a back-story companion piece, is festooned with its own characters and once-upon-a-time charms.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

A perfectly solid family adventure, one that's made all the more fun for cinebuffs by those signature Raimi touches.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5

While there are quite a few fine things in Oz, I can't say I found the film entirely satisfying.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Franco, grinning and smirking his way through his performance, can't compete with the witches.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

The film blends together impressive special effects, a story about teamwork and the redemption of a man who finally strives for greatness into an effective family film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Enthralling enough to share a double feature bill with Victor Fleming's 1939 original.

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Both Franco and the overall aspects of the movie are better than I hoped for or expected.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10

It has the wow factor that big, Hollywood event movies demand. Raimi was the right person to elevate some pretty standard material, though Franco and Kunis may not have been the right people for the job.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

No Toto, no problem.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4