Oz: The Great and Powerful (not really a prequel)

If you have not seen this movie yet then once you finish reading this article or right now, if you please, you should go and see it.
Called "An unofficial prequel to the 1939 film (The Wizard of Oz)", it really looks more like an origin story since we learn about the origin of Oz himself and other characters. 
Oscar Diggs (James Franco) is a hard-luck illusionist with so many flaws in his personality that he could easily have been an antihero and not a hero. Chased by one of his enemies, oscar gets on a balloon  and getsaccidentally trapped inside a tornado that magically transports him to the Kingdom of Oz. There he is received by one witch named Theodora (Mila Kunis)  who tells him that there is a prophecy that announces the coming of a powerful wizard that will freed the Emerald City from the evil clutches of Evanora (Rachel Weisz) who is the Wicked Witch of the East. Theodora though has a secret and is that she is Evanora's sister though they are different but not for long: soon and because of Oscar, Theodora will undergo a profound change and this act itself will have repercusions not only in this film but also in "The Wizard of Oz" (please, see both Oz and The Wizard of Oz so you can understand what I mean.
Oscar will eventually befriend a winged monkey dressed as a bellhop, a small porcelain doll and Glinda, the good Witch of the North. With their helpm, Oz will become a better person and release the land of Oz from the influence of the wicked witches (There are two of them at least).
This movie is a must-see for various reasons: it really connects with the 1939 classic. The acting is pretty good though nothing out of this world. The story is family-oriented and talks about values such as how careful we have to be with other people's feelings ,and how if we want to, we can change for the better. But the most important is the photography: hen the story begins and until Oz arrive it is in black and white but once he enters Oz, suddenly everything is so colorful and amazing that is truly a vision to treasure. What happens next is only fun, Disney - style, with several revelations along the way.
Five stars out of five for this one.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do you say MIRADOR in English?

Image
"Hmm, why do I have this nagging feeling that someone is watching me watching?" In Spanish, a MIRADOR is any place that allows a privileged view of the surroundings. In English, a MIRADOR is a VIEWPOINT or a LOOKOUT. Another possible translation is VANTAGE POINT, though in a tourist context this term is a bit less common.
Read more

The Maps of Ship-Trap Island

Image
Once I had my high school students read The Most Dangerous Game, a short story by Richard Connell. Rainsford, the main character, is a professional hunter traveling by ship to his next hunting area, accidentally ends up in an island called Ship- Trap island. When he goes into the island he finds there are two men living in a palace in the island. One of them is a Cossack general and the other, his brutish servant.  The Cossack is called general Zaroff who is also  a game hunter but has become bored of hunting regular game and now uses the island's unique position to capture sailors from shipwrecks. He lets them go first and next after some time he hunts them down. Rainford's arrival who is worldwide famous presents Zaroff with a rare opportunity to find excitement in hunting again by hunting another hunter. Little does Zaroff know that Rainsford is The Most Dangerous Game in the World and hunting him will not be easy at all. My students enjoyed themselves at reading...
Read more

How do you say EXAMEN SUPLETORIO in English?

Image
Darn! I wonder if there's a Make Up exam for this Make up exam! I remember that long ago I asked my distinguished and knowledgeable colleagues of that time to enlighten me and tell me the right English word for what we know in Ecuador as EXAMEN SUPLETORIO or EXAMEN DE RECUPERACION.  After hearing Recovery exam or Supplemenary test and even Supletory exam, I was not convinced so I decided to go to a higher authority and looked up one of those encyclopedic dictionaries from Oxford or Cambridge university (these were the pre-browser times) and found the right expression is MAKE UP EXAM which is taken when an exam has been missed or when a student needs to change one score with a more favorable one. The British say RECUPERATION EXAM which is perhaps more practical since to some people the term Make Up is confusing. Make-up is the word for the wearing of cosmetics. There are Make-up tests which are oriented to future Make-up artists.
Read more