Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013)

Film: Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013)
Stars: James Franco, Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, Zach Braff
Director: Sam Raimi
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

No one knows quite how to package a beloved property like Disney.  Think of how many fairy tales are driven by that magical castle and all the wonder it has in store.  So, on the surface, if anyone is going to take on the Oz tale (and really, let's be totally honest here, no one needed to take it on as the 1939 classic still stands tall), Disney was probably your best bet.  What we ended up with was a glossy, bloated, occasionally intriguing, and saccharine prequel to Dorothy's journey to the Emerald City, proving that while Disney can make the classics sing, perhaps they should leave those that have already hit perfection alone.

(Spoilers ahead, but the film is so blatant that you'll see them coming a mile away, proving this warning unnecessary) I'm not going to give you a background on Oz, because if you're at a movie blog, you're already familiar, and if you're not, get thyself to the Netflix queue and put it at the top of the list.  This particular installment in the House that Baum Built tells the tale of the Wizard himself, a man of parlor tricks and not a legitimate sorcerer himself, who finds his way on a tornado trip to Oz.  There he meets three witches, Theodora (Kunis), Evanora (Weisz), and Glinda (Williams), all of which are at war with each other, and while it's pretty obvious to everyone which one is going to be the true "good witch," the movie for some reason strings you along for at least a half hour trying to toy that perhaps Weisz/Kunis are the good witches.

The film then enters a long, protracted set of battles, with Kunis being revealed as the Wicked Witch of the West and Weisz eventually as the Wicked Witch of the East.  We get introduced to the munchkins, the Tinkers, and we got throwbacks to the Scarecrows, Cowardly Lions, and dozens of other allusions to the world of Oz.  The film ends with Franco using modern (by the standards of 1915) technology to "create" magic, and thus saving Oz and the day.

The film has a lot of gaping holes in its plot, and principally among them is the question of why Oz needed a Wizard at all.  The two sides each have highly powerful witches to fight their battles, and yet, in a plot that reeks of sexism, they can't get along until a man comes in to sort out the situation.

The film also fails on the entire black and white beginning, drawing allusions to future cast members (we see Williams and Zach Braff playing different, similar characters) but not to others (Weisz and Kunis are nowhere to be found, making the throwback lacking, particularly since there were two key female parts in the beginning half that would have worked perfectly with them in the parts).

The acting in the film is all over the place.  The film is at its best with Weisz and Williams, both truly great actresses, who understand the material better than their costars.  They aren't afraid to wink at the audience (in Williams case, quite literally), and shoot their characters to the rafters, playing cartoonish in a film that calls for it.  Williams, on the face of it, has the tougher role of the two (it's always easier to play the over-the-top villain), but both are mad fun, campy but clever.  Both actors have done the mass-level entertainment before (Weisz in The Mummy franchise, Williams on Dawson's) and know not to take the script too seriously.

The remaining three cast members fare far worse.  Braff, first playing a sidekick and then a flying monkey that mirrors his real-world persona, has been playing J.D. for so long I sometimes think that he's forgotten how to play anyone else.  If Garden State was any indication, that may be his one signature role because he is too limited to do much else; I know that sounds harsh, but whenever he gets outside of that element, he falls apart.

Franco, an actor of significantly stronger range, also doesn't bode well in popcorn flicks.  Franco is at his best playing the quiet, sexualized characters that he created in Milk and Howl.  His broad grin and handsome face seem like they should be perfect for marquee fare, but you always "catch him acting," going on wide swings with his performance, not quite sure where to go with such a traditional character.

Mila Kunis seems to be receiving the brunt of the criticism in the film, though, and part of that is that she's being compared to Weisz and Williams, which of course is unfair because they are arguably two of the best actresses of their generations.  However, Kunis is badly miscast as Theodora, a naive witch who falls for the Wizard and then is tricked into becoming wicked.  Granted, no one is going to be able to come out from the shadow of Margaret Hamilton's original creation (perhaps the cinema's most iconic villain), but Kunis can't seem to pull off naive (Black Swan has sort of ruined that for her), and for a woman whose most celebrated creation is an animated character, Kunis also is too histrionic to play over-the-top.  And also, future casting directors, please be advised that Kunis should never be doing voiceover-it is impossible to not conure images of Meg Griffin when you see Kunis offscreen during the shadow-y sequences with the witch.

I don't want to leave the Kunis portion of this article without pointing out that while Kunis may not have the range of a Williams or Weisz, that isn't to say that with the right casting director, she couldn't be dynamite.  I would love to see what Tarantino or David Lynch doing neo-noir could pull off with her.  She's a fascinating celebrity, and occasionally an excellent performer, and so I hope that she continues to challenge herself, and doesn't just make "object of my desire" comedies and March-release populist films in the future.

Unlike Kunis, though, there's no saving this movie.  The art direction is garish, and the effects over-the-top, in a similar fashion to Alice in Wonderland a few years ago, perhaps getting even further into the acid-trip color pallette than that film enjoyed.  While I think it could be a strong contender for an Oscar nomination later this year (the Box Office and prestige of Robert Stromberg being key factors), it shouldn't be anywhere near the Dolby.

But those are my thoughts-what are yours?  Did you have a favorite witch in Oz?  Where do you think the careers of Mila Kunis and James Franco should go?  And what prequel will Disney come up with next?

OVP: Ted (2012)

Film: Ted (2012)
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane, Joel McHale, Giovanni Ribisi, Patrick Stewart
Director: Seth MacFarlane
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Song-"Everybody Needs a Best Friend")
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

I, after years of fighting it, am a huge fan of Seth MacFarlane and his crazy but lovable antics.  There have been times in my life where I fell with the South Park side of the Cartoon Wars-I'm aware that Family Guy mines much of its humor from one-offs and cutaways that have little to do with the plot and more to do with random amusing anecdotes that one of the writers must have thought outloud and wished to include in the show.  His cavalcade of television shows (which also include The Cleveland Show and, my favorite, American Dad!) never quite reach the historic brilliance of The Simpsons or the sharp incisiveness of South Park, but they are a fun, oftentimes devilishly clever, part of television history at this point.

So it seems natural that I would respond well to MacFarlane, who always has had a flair for the cinematic, when he turned to the movies, and indeed, there's so much to like about this movie.  I'll include a quick spoiler alert here, but I suspect everyone's already caught this movie and I'm the last to the show.  The film tells the tale of a magical teddy bear (MacFarlane), brought to life by a young boy's wish, who grows up to be a slovenly, sex-crazed adult, who still lives with his best friend John (Wahlberg) and his far more successful, increasingly frustrated girlfriend Lori (Kunis).  In addition to Kunis, the film features such MacFarlane regulars as Patrick Stewart and Patrick Warburton in supporting roles, as well as numerous cameos (a staple in the cartoon world of MacFarlane).

The movie, like most of MacFarlane's work, has a lot of heart underneath its thick layer of dirty jokes and sarcastic cuts.  The film is largely about John, who must decide whether or not he is going to leave his world of bong hits and Flash Gordon viewings to become a grown-up, with a managerial job and a wife.  Wahlberg, not one to back down from an acting challenge, embraces the hambone antics of his character with aplomb, and even when it's obvious that MacFarlane is poking fun at his Boston-born star, Wahlberg is more than willing to go the extra mile for a physical laugh.  Kunis, for so many years the put-upon straight woman on Family Guy, once again rises to the challenge of being an audience counterweight to the bevy of shenanigans onscreen.  This is the wrong film to gripe about for this (since Kunis is very well cast and delivers in her role), but considering the many accolades she received for Black Swan (you have to believe she was in sixth place for the Oscar nomination), it's a pity that the clearly talented (who would have guessed ten years ago that it would be she, and not Topher Grace, that would be the "thespian" of That 70's Show?) actress has not been able to land another director as generous as Aronofsky to work with; she's signed up with Phil Alden Robinson and Paul Haggis, so perhaps that's about to change, though I'm not what you can call a fan of either of them, so I have some doubts.

Though Wahlberg and Kunis are the headliners, the star of this, like any of MacFarlane's productions, is the director himself, as Ted is another humorous creation that can proudly sit beside Stewie Griffin and Roger the Alien.  Like Peter Griffin, he's crude but lovable, and like Quagmire, he is constantly shifting from woman-to-woman (though he has infinitely more respect for the rather "unique" women who would for some reason date a teddy bear).  Ted is selfish and sarcastic, but you can see why John and even Lori appreciate him-he's a well-meaning, caring individual that just hasn't hit maturity quite yet.

The problem with MacFarlane's writing, which is always solid, is that it's also vastly repetitive.  For those of you who, like me, have seen every episode of Family Guy and American Dad a myriad of times, you'll notice how he steals jokes from himself and repackages them onscreen.  You can't hit as many episodes as Family Guy without starting to recycle some ideas, but it'd be nice to see MacFarlane stretch his talents a bit.  Trey Parker and Matt Stone, for example, borrowed from but deeply enhanced their work with The Book of Mormon, a classic in its own right.  With MacFarlane now exploring the world of film, considering his crooner voice, it'd be nice if he would tackle a musical or maybe get outside of his comfort zone a bit and focus on, I don't know, a decade other than the 1980's for his pop culture inspiration.

The movie, in one of those twists that only happens in the Song and Makeup categories, became an Oscar nominee (and got MacFarlane his first Oscar nomination as a result) for the Norah Jones sung "Everybody Needs a Best Friend."  In a surprisingly strong year for the Best Song category (after last year's laughingstock this is a welcome relief), this song is catchy and plays over the opening credits, and assists the story right along.  It's not a particularly memorable song (if you think back on it, you only truly remember the title hook, and it doesn't compare to MacFarlane's cartoon rivals Matt & Trey's blissful "Blame Canada"), but this category has gone far, far worse, and it's a fun way to honor this year's Oscar host.

And that's where I'm going to leave off as I've touched on what I wanted to touch upon (the silly kidnapping story seems like unnecessary and cliched patter, so I don't feel the need to discuss it), but what about you?  What are your thought on MacFarlane and his potential cinematic career?  Do you also wish that Kunis would do more challenging fare amidst the sea of Justin Timberlake sex comedies?  And since this is the fifth of our five films nominated for Best Song, which tune are you hoping wins at the Oscars in a few weeks?