Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Movie Review: Mila Kunis's Wicked Performance ruins Oz


 
Mila Kunis's Wicked Performance ruin Oz
Movie Review
Oz the Great and Powerful



 

           “Oz the Great and Powerful” is the new box office hit that essentially is a prequel to the famous 1939 Victor Fleming classic “The Wizard of Oz”. Director Sam Raimi takes his audience deeper into the reimagined land of Oz while showing the history of the famous Wizard and Wicked Witch of the West.

          The film begins in black and white with Oscar “Oz” Diggs (James Franco) a selfish womanizing conman doing a traveling magic show in Kansas. A tornado sweeps him into a colorful and magical land of Oz. He’s greeted by many who believe he is a wizard, and his selfish ambitions drive him to deceive in order to receive the benefits of this kingly title. Throughout his conquest he attracts some companions and impacts the lives of three witches. He becomes the great Wizard of Oz because, because , because…because of the wonderful things he does.

 
This was a risky move for Raimi because he had to bring back the magical world of Oz as audiences remember it, but with new cinema technology and sadly without the property rights to the original MGM movie. In Raimi’s typical fashion, CGI was overwhelming, but only to attract the children and families to the magical world in 3D with new creatures, plants, and characters. Also the subtle and clever tie-ins to the original classic will bring your heart happily over the rainbow.

Oz meets sidekicks on his adventure through Emerald City, and like in the original movie they are based on characters that he met in real life. Fin the flying monkey (voiced by Zach Braff) was a likeable character that gets audiences laughing throughout the first half of the film. Oz’s second companion, the porcelain china girl (voiced by Joey King) was essentially the star of the movie. She brought a humorous and relatable delight that touched the hearts of the audience.

The casting was superb for the most part with one wicked exception. James Franco did a phenomenal job showing his characters growth into the wonderful wizard. Rachel Weiss and Michelle Williams were also amazing witches that really blended nicely into the storyline. However, Mila Kunis was the worst thing that could have ever happened to this movie.

NO COMPARISON
 
Kunis was obviously cast to put some butts in the seats with her trending buzz in Hollywood lately, but she is the only reason that audiences’ shouldn’t wile away the hours in theatres. She starts off as an innocent and beautiful witch, named Theodora, falling in love for Oz. Throughout her scenes it sounds like she’s cold reading the script from a hidden monitor on Franco’s face that just becomes tortuous to watch. Just when you want her character to melt off that giant theatre screen, Kunis then transforms into one of the most memorable icons of classic movie history, and butchers it.

If you didn’t know this before, Kunis is the annoying, whiny, and dull voice of the character Meg in the show Family Guy. She doesn’t make her voice purposely irritating in the show. She just reads her lines, and it fulfills that purposely awful character. Translating that voice into one of the most iconic and dynamic characters in the story completely drops a house onto any feeling of nostalgia. 

Meg from Family Guy
 
Her voice and scream were so pitiful compared to the original villain witch. Which old witch? The Wicked Witch played by the talented Margaret Hamilton who had a voice that could give you chills and scare you and your little dog too. Even though the Wizard of Oz is the main character, the Wicked Witch is the only character that directly ties this movie with the classic “Wizard of Oz”, since she’s highly featured in both.  It’s hard to say what exactly she did wrong other than she did everything wrong. She was absolutely not the Wicked Witch that fans know and love.

Hilarious video mocking how terrible Mila's Performance was.

 
If you are off to see the wizard this weekend, think twice about why you are going to see this movie. If you know no nothing about the previous movie then you will enjoy this flick. On the other hand, if you are a classic Oz fan then you may enjoy the deeper exploration of Oz, and the history of the some of your favorite characters, but prepare, the Wicked Witch could ruin your expectations.  In theatres, you are going to need to utilize your brain, heart, and courage to walk down this yellow brick road of a movie because this time the Wicked Witch will keep you  in the theatre repeating in your head “there is no place like home, there is no place like home.”

 

1 comment:

  1. It kinda ruined it for me. What about those who have never seen Family Guy. Do you think people would like it because they don't associate her with Meg or is she still miscast as the Wicked Witch?

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