Review of Oz the Great and Powerful

Once again, Hollywood has come out with another horrific "addition" to the canon of classic children's stories. This awful prequel should be seen as another blemishment in Sam Raimi's career as a director. Once again, he's splattered cheesy special effects all over the screen in an attempt to impress the audience, but skips out on any type of depth of meaning. He still hasn't figured out that the magic of the movies comes out through the audience becoming engaged with the characters and the storyline, not by being overwhelmed by an over-expansive computer-generated world that looks like its made of plastic. James Franco and Mila Kunis should also be embarrassed by their utter lack of acting in this film. A half-hour into this tragedy and I was ready to leave the theatre. All the characters in the film seem like they're speaking their lines into the camera, probably a result of the fact that everything in the film looks like it was put into the film in post-production. I couldn't help but find it ironic that the screenwriters of Oz have the Kansas magician be tempted by the gold-filled riches of the Emerald City, but find the strength to resist. After viewing the film, all one can think of is how much Roth and Raimi sold out the magical, fantastical world of Oz for the evil riches that came with suckering the poor fans of the imagination of Baum with this over-bloated, horribly-written, poorly acted travesty of a film. They are the ultimate Kansas hucksters. Perhaps they need to look for a little more "goodness" and a little less "greatness."