'Oz The Great and Powerful' is less than magical

'Oz' features an affable James Franco and radiant Michelle Williams, but its Wizard origin story drags.

By Peter Rainer,?Film critic / March 8, 2013

'Oz The Great and Powerful' stars James Franco (l.) and Michelle Williams (r.).

Merie Weismiller Wallace/Disney Enterprises/AP

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?Oz The Great and Powerful? is the latest in a seemingly endless stream of Hollywood fairy-tale redos. It?s a bit better than ?Jack the Giant Slayer,? but not by much. Directed by Sam Raimi, it?s a prequel to ?The Wizard of Oz? that attempts to answer the question, ?How did the wizard become the wizard??

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In this version, our wizard started out as Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time Kansas carnival magician who is whisked via hot air balloom into the Land of Oz, where, as imagined by Raimi and screenwriters Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire, he encounters not one but three witches: Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz), and Glinda (Michelle Williams). Glinda, of course, is good ? or, to be precise, Good.

Franco is affable and helps tone down the film?s overly bright and overscaled production values. (The 3-D is passable). Williams is radiant without being sappy. It?s nice to see Munchkins again, not to mention Quadlings. But long stretches of ?Oz? are lumbering and inspiration-free. (Also Dorothy-free.) I?m no fan of ?Wicked,? the musical ?Oz? prequel, but at least it had some big-time energy going for it. Raimi?s film is supposed to be about magic, but magic is in scant supply. Grade: C+ (Rated PG for sequences of action and scary images, and brief mild language.)

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