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Oz (James Franco) finds himself in a magical world needing saved from the Wicked Witch. |
No offense to Sam Raimi, but he's probably not one of the
first directors that comes to mind who would attempt to reimagine the enchanting
world of L. Frank Baum's Oz. Given his directorial track record of the Spider-Man trilogy, Army of Darkness and The Evil
Dead, a land of munchkins, witches and wizards seems all too foreign for someone
who made his mark producing cult-classic splatter-fests.
Oz the Great and
Powerful reopens the doors to the whimsical parallel world made famous by
Baum's series of novels and Victor Fleming's 1939 classic starring Judy
Garland. But this trip misses a few of the key ingredients. No Dorothy. No
Scarecrow. No Tin Man. No Cowardly Lion. In fact, the Wizard of Oz comes in the
form of James Franco as a small-time magician from Kansas, continuously looking
for opportunities to cheat and swindle the simple-minded.