Sam Raimi’s ‘Oz The Great And Powerful’ Is The Kind Of Visually Opulent Family Fantasy Picture We Never Get To See Anymore

The new MCU film Dr. Strange In the Multiverse of Madness, which made about $450 million in worldwide box office receipts during its first weekend of release, is Sam Raimi’s first gig directing a feature motion picture in nine years. In that interim, he’s done a lot of producing and directed some television. His last theatrical feature, Oz the Great and Powerful, was all the way back in 2013, and while it performed well at the box office (grossing almost $500MM worldwide), it’s not exactly beloved. Whether or not the critical reaction to that big budget fantasy had anything to do with keeping him out of the director’s chair I don’t know (though I do know he expressed no interest in directing the proposed but now apparently never-to-be-made sequel), but I can tell you I think it’s a very underrated piece of work, one that you can currently stream on Starz.

Making a sequel, or in this case a prequel, to a deathless classic like The Wizard of Oz is just asking for trouble (see also Walter Murch’s 1985 film Return to Oz, a cult film that actually is rather beloved these days, but sank seemingly without a trace at the time), but, if you’re going to do it, it’s a good idea to let a director with a visual imagination like Sam Raimi take the helm. In making Oz the Great and Powerful, Raimi did take many visual and design cues from 1939 Victor Fleming original, because it would be foolish not to, but he also added his own flair and ideas. The results are delightful.

As previously mentioned, the film is a prequel, and as implied by the title it tells the story about how the circus conman and magician Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs one day found himself in the fantastical Land of Oz, and subsequently taking on the title of the Wizard of Oz. In the film, the character also goes by Oz, of course, and he’s played by James Franco. I’ll get this out of the way now and say that Franco is the weak link in the picture, especially in the beginning section (shot in black and white); here Franco is playing up Oz’s conman tendencies, and he does so in a way that I find it impossible that anyone could ever buy into it. Be that as it may, a series of events lands him in a hot air balloon, and a storm whisks him to the Land of Oz. Once there, he meets Theodora (Mila Kunis), a good witch who tells him that she believes he, Oz, is the wizard it was prophesied would one day arrive and save the kingdom from a wicked witch.

I’ll cut to the chase at this point and say Theodora takes Oz and a flying monkey companion he met earlier (voiced by Zach Braff) to Emerald City, and the palace where she lives with her sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz), who is both highly suspicious of Oz and somewhat worthy of suspicion herself. And eagle-eyed viewers will have picked up on what’s really going on with these sisters, if they somehow didn’t already know, when they get to the palace and see what kind of guards they have around there. Anyway, it turns out that who these sisters claim is the Wicked Witch is, in fact, Glinda the Good (Michelle Williams), and once Oz gets wind of what’s going on, he’s able to eventually suppress his natural selfishness and dishonesty and try to help Glinda take back Emerald City.

If anyone’s career should have gained traction after Oz the Great and Powerful came out, apart from Raimi, it’s Mila Kunis. I think she’s really terrific here, initially playing Theodora as a naïve, somewhat sheltered young woman (who nevertheless at one point displays one hell of a temper) who falls in love with Oz (and in fairness, one of Oz’s many character flaws, at least in the early stages of the film, is cowardice, which results in him leading her on) and is subsequently manipulated by her evil older sister into believing Oz consciously betrayed her. This leads to Theodora biting the apple offered by Evanora that transforms her, mentally and physically, into the Wicked Witch of the West we all know. And Kunis plays this to hilt, pure evil now, her green, pointed features shining with madness.

For his part, Raimi uses these scene with Kunis to milk his experience making horror films for all its worth (at least within the limits of a PG-rated fantasy film). Kunis’s first full scene as the Wicked Witch is very reminiscent of Margaret Hamilton’s first appearance in the 1939 movie, as she rages at and threatens Oz, Glinda, and a crowd of Emerald City citizens. All of this is as colorful and vibrant as the Fleming original, and a lot of that vividness comes from Theodora’s green skin and contrasting black hat and clothing. Later, there’s a wonderful shot of Theodora in the foreground, and behind her the night sky is filled with fireworks and Oz’s face projected on a pillar of smoke. There’s a lot to look at in that one 10-second shot.

I’ve never quite understood why Oz the Great and Powerful got such a bad rap from so many critics. This kind of visually opulent family fantasy picture we almost never see anymore, which I think is a terrible shame. But I’m glad this one got made.

Bill Ryan has also written for The Bulwark, RogerEbert.com, and Oscilloscope Laboratories Musings blog. You can read his deep archive of film and literary criticism at his blog The Kind of Face You Hate, and you can find him on Twitter: @faceyouhate