Vegetate in a circus on wheels magician womanizer and honorable scoundrel Oz (James Franco) dreams in a dusty Kansas to the glory and greatness of Houdini Thomson invented electricity. But he gets only cuffs and butting of life. When problems reach their climax in Kansas, according to tradition, begins a hurricane. He grabs Oz vortex of black and white turmoil and delivers a balloon into a fairyland, wearing a strange coincidence, his same name, where the challenges are different scale and paint.
Here he meets friends in the face of non-standard porcelain girls and winged monkeys uniformed doorman and three standard sisters witches: Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanor (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams). All of them require a careless magician rescue Oz. However, that and do not know that the friendship of the three sisters - this is a conspiracy against the two-third, to paraphrase Chekhov.
Several generations of favorite fairy tale "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" L. Frank Baum, most successfully filmed in 1939, after many years gained full prequel. And its author became director of the trilogy of Spider-Man Sam Raimi, who had to fish out the crumbs backstory of all 14 volumes Baum, did not bother to tell the time by yourself how it all began.
"Oz the Great and Powerful" with all of this looks very convincing. It is still the same familiar to us for HR 1939 serpentine path of yellow brick, the same outlines of Oz, the same fairy who moves in space by means of bubbles, and the crowd tireless Munchkins. Raimi probably decided to take the old film adaptation, in which there was no place of computer graphics and hromokeyu, the best and by his Oscar-winning directors artist "Avatar" and "Alice in Wonderland" by Robert Stromberg, took most of the film in the nature . Why, however, at the sight, for example, monkeys and porcelain girl (completely Toon Disney are drawn), there is some dissonance. But with the animation side of the film differently and could not get out. After all, "Oz the Great and Powerful" filmed at the studio Disney.
"Oz" clear and simply structured, according to the canons of the genre. To distinguish good from evil is easy. To lure the dark side cookies can be. And in order to defeat the evil have popyhtet and strain gyrus. But the most important thing in fairy tales no action, and morality. In "Oz The Great and Powerful" it is important not only for children but also for adults.
What runs through the whole story with the Scarecrow, Woodman and the Lion, is regaining meaning in history: to each according to his needs, from each according to his ability. It is important to see just these abilities and competently apply. For example, Oz, who in his Kansas can not give a girl from the audience the opportunity to walk, suddenly gives her broken doll of Oz. Not to mention how it is possible to become a circus rascal great and terrible wizard and obtain the desired glory and greatness, without making anything supernatural.
Oz suddenly lights up. This insight explains all further logic of his behavior in the next part of the tale. It becomes available to the mystery, which is known to every inhabitant of Oz. This is a place for all his spells, wands, flying monkeys and the shrill laughter witches by zelenolitsey Kunis on a broomstick, has the effect of placebo, which is known to be "wonderful" way the characters reveals hidden potential. And in the end someone again quickened heartbeat, someone is brave and clever, while others, as in "South Park," today is very much understood.
The film goes to rent March 7.