Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013 Sam Raimi film)

Did you work on this one?++?

 

No, that was all done in Detroit, and mixed by my buddy Martin Humphrey. Great sounding film.

 

What kinda smack 'you talking TeacFan? Raimi constructed a ton of Oz sets here in Michigan specifically because he wanted it to look big and real, which I thought did for the Emerald City scenes particularly. A lot of the film was going to be CGI no matter where the principal photography was because you can't have China Dolls and such running around without it and not look like phony miniature animation. I thought the film looked as good as it could have. The problem with the film wasn't the look. The problem was the script and the acting.

Derek

 

watched this again! yea, again.
Love it! damn, a cool prequel to WOZ...

 

I saw the film for the first time last night, watched on DVD. First off, I have got to praise the men and women who worked on the sound. The mix is damn near perfect. Was the film a little longer than it should have been? Maybe, by five to ten minutes, but I can overlook that. What amazed and pleased me most was how gentle and innocent the whole story felt. The writers did a really nice job of creating a version of Oz that managed to be believable without using any of the story elements that were off-limits due to copyright issues.

As for casting, I felt every part was done just right. Robert Downey, Jr. would have been perfect if the movie had been made just a few years earlier but James Franco brought some very good things to the table. And Mila Kunis, for me at least, hit all the right notes. I wish I had been able to see this in a movie theater.

 

I went to the theater to see it one afternoon. I chose the 3D version as I had heard it was very well done, and I can say that it was. I'm not really a big 3D fan, but it was definitely worth seeing Oz The Great and Powerful in that format. Like you, I felt that the story was nicely done, especially taking some of the story lines from the other Oz books (kinda sorta.) The sound in the theater was excellent, and so was the Blu-ray transfer. BTW, I bought the Blu-ray version that has both the 3D and the regular 2D films. Interestingly, the day I went to see the film, I was the only person in the theater. It was decadent to be the only person watching the film; I felt like a movie mogul getting a private screening!

 

Sam Raimi would have been the perfect person to have directed The Hobbit films; he shares a lot of the sensibilities and approaches to storytelling as Peter Jackson - big heart, gonzo humor, background in budget horror flicks, etc - and perfectly understood that story as one aimed at kids, a children's adventure story with darkness and danger but not a DARK story as such. Plus, with the mega-success of the Spider-Man trilogy behind him, he would absolutely have got the MGM money guys to pull the trigger and give the greenlight in a way that Guillermo del Toro (who I never understood why he got the job, he publicly stated he hated Tolkien before Jackson hand-picked him for the job, not a good start) simply was too esoteric to do, in fact, Raimi was New Line's original choice to do The Hobbit films when it looked like Jackson wasn't, according to chairman Robert Shaye.

And I'm betting Raimi would have kept it to two films as well, which it always should have been...

 

I guess you could see it that way. It happened to me the other night and I felt like: "What? Am I that much a loser for being the only one at this movie?"

 

I think that all depends on whether or not you liked the movie!

 

I got bored and walked out! (Bridge of Spies)