New OZ Movie

Yesterday as an early birthday present from my wife I went to Quito, Ecuador (at least two hours away each way) to catch the new Disney Oz movie entitled Oz the Great and Terrible.  There are no movie theatres in the city where we live (Ibarra).  As much as we Oz fans can get excited about such events, the movie pretty much falls flat.  The 3D effects are pretty good most of the time, but probably do not make the movie worth seeing.  The best 3D effects are found in the opening credits (which says a lot about the movie), the tornado scene when the basket of the hot air balloon gets pierced by large splintered wood, endangering the "wizard's" life before he even arrives in Oz, the river scene that takes the wizard down a waterfall, and the scene where the Winkies (in the service of the Wicked Witch) throw spears which seemingly come right through the screen at us the viewers.  That had me sitting on the edge of my seat, for sure.  And there is a cute flying monkey Finley (pictured above) who offers his services when the wizard saves his life.  This mostly consisted in carrying his waterlogged briefcase. 

The characterizations are mostly one-dimensional for a 3D movie, which unfortunately is often the case.  Special effects do not MAKE a movie.  Pictured above you can see the China Doll with the wizard.  We as viewers can't identify with the Doll because the moviemakers give us no reason nor the opportunity to "know" the character.  That is simply one example of a definite lack of well-defined characters as we had in the original.  The most glaring absence of characterization is the wizard himself.  No background information is offered about him to make us like him and counteract the prevailing feeling that he is a superficial fraud.  Perhaps it is partly a case of miscasting in the person of James Franco as the wizard.  I read the Robert Downey, Jr. and Johnny Depp both (wisely) declined the role.  The wizard's given name is Oscar, hence the title OZ, which seems a bit contrived to me.  I would have liked for the movie to be a critical and artistic hit, but alas!  that was not meant to be.  The same thing happened when I raised my hopes for the Bewitched movie in 2004.  At least I didn't fall asleep in this movie, perhaps for the novelty of the 3D experience.  I don't want to offer any more spoilers of the movie, but I would suggest for anyone who wants to satisfy an Oz fix to go back and read the original series of L. Frank Baum books on which this movie is allegedly based.  Don't worry!  Judy Garland has nothing to fear!  Thankfully, there is no place but home to the Baum books and the original MGM movie after watching this misguided Disney prequel!  Let's hope there won't be a sequel to the prequel.