Skip to main content



Rating: 3.6/5
Review: "Oz the great and powerful movie review"

Sam Raimi's latest movie is as usual as his other movies; colourful and entertaining. This looks a bit like his Spider-Man movies. It has some thrilling action, looks good and has loads of CGI. It is purely an entertaining adventure but I have to say that the runtime is a little too long. It could be trimmed to about 2 hours. With the mild problem of the runtime, this manages to still be a massively entertaining movie because of its light humour and brisk pace.

The story: The first 15-20 minutes are black and white and it is intentional. James Franco plays Oscar, a selfish magician in a circus. His morals are not very good and his character is not very likable. Once he gets into the magical Oz, the picture becomes vibrant and full with brimming colours. He meets a witch, Theodora (Mila Kunis) who thinks he is the real wizard who can save Oz from the wicked witch. He then meets a flying monkey, Finley and Theodora's sister, Evanora. Evanora tells him that in order to be the wizard of Oz, he has to take the wicked witch's wand. With his greed, Oscar sets on an adventure that will change his whole life. It has its fair share of action and thrills especially in the last half and hour where a magical showdown takes place in Oz. Sam Raimi's movies are not only about thrills and spectacle, his movies also have the characters' development and heart. In this, you will see Oscar developing from a selfish and greedy man into someone with courage and who is willing to fight for the greater good. Acting wise is okay. James did okay but not fantastic. Music wise is good. The CGI effects may be a little too overwhelming at times but most of the times, they are okay though a little too cartoonish.

Overall: It is worth a watch in cinema for family entertainment. It should be worth a watch in 3D as even when I watched it in 2D, some effects look good for 3D viewing. This is entertaining but it is not as good as Sam's other movies and it does have the potential to be something epic with the scale being used.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rating: 4.5/5 Review: "Man of Steel movie review" With all the hype from the trailers, I must say this is what it looks to be expected. I have to say that this is the biggest and epic superhero movie yet. This treats destructions like child's play. It is also the most explosive superhero movie. There are so much explosions that they could literally make you exhausted from watching all those. Although this is directed by Zack Snyder, this does not have much of his trademark except the visuals. His slo-mo trademark is not featured. Instead, the action is rapid fast. Man of Steel is a good entertainment with exciting action scenes and visuals but at the same, a somehow touching human drama. The story: We get an extended opening scene on Krypton where Kal-El is just born. However the planet is going to be destroyed with General Zod adding to the problem. To save Kal-El, he has to be sent to another planet known as Earth. What is interesting about the movie that it do...
Post a Comment
Read more
Rating: 3.4/5 Review: "The Spirit of Ramayana" (103 minutes) "A passable Thai horror movie with an interesting concept but weak execution." As a low-budget horror movie, it has enough entertainment values. In the recent years, there are a few strong Thai horror movies with decent production values and there are many mediocre low-budget horror movies. The Spirit of Ramayana is somewhat in the middle. It may not look that polished but its themes and concept are intriguing enough. The story: The narrative is straight forward however its editing made the movie look messy and disjointed. It is a simple story about Mintra, a young dancer who is rejected for the main role because she cannot pull off an evil and sensual side. However, a spirit helps her to unleash her dark side. On paper, it sounds like a supernatural Black Swan. It lacks the emotional depth of Black Swan as the director seems only interested in churning out cheap scares. As the plot develops fur...
Post a Comment
Read more
Rating: 3.5/5 Review: "The Exchange" (90 minutes) "A decent fast-paced Thai heist thriller that is marred by weak action choreography and shoddy editing"  It's a low-key movie. You can hardly find information about this online when you type in its English title. Perhaps you will have better luck finding information in Thai. My curiosity piqued when I couldn't find any English review on it. Should I take the risk in watching an unknown movie? I finally decided that it wouldn't hurt buying a cheap ticket (US$2.50) to experience it. I actually enjoyed the movie but not the experience. Sure the movie has its own flaws but it is not as distracting as the badly dubbed Khmer language. The dub is emotionless and does not fit the tone of the characters. I know Thai and Khmer are two different languages but I couldn't help by being distracted with the bad lip sync throughout the whole movie. On the other hand, the movie is fast-paced enough to hol...
Post a Comment
Read more