Wicked made waves in Hollywood last year with its striking dive back into the wonderful world of Oz, but beloved director Sam Raimi pulled the same trick years earlier with Oz the Great and Powerful. Today, the prequel has been largely forgotten and overshadowed by other Wizard of Oz-related movies, and it’s painfully easy to see why.
The Wizard of Oz is easily one of the most important movies ever made, if not the single most important. Based on the beloved novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, the film not only signified Hollywood’s stunning move to full-color filmmaking, but it laid out the groundwork for important blockbusters for generations to come.
This influence is easily felt in the many The Wizard of Oz spin-offs and prequels that have come and gone since, with the adaptation of the prequel musical Wicked being the latest to reach new heights of popularity. The upcoming Wicked: For Good will further popularize this latest iteration of the Land of Oz.
However, Wicked isn’t the only modern film to have endeared itself with the idea of exploring the origins of one of the original musical’s most famous characters. Enter Sam Raimi’s forgotten Oz the Great and Powerful, which tells the story of the Wonderful Wizard himself.
Sam Raimi Directed Oz The Great And Powerful
A Forgotten Prequel Set In The Wonderful World
Though Sam Raimi might be better known for his iconic Spider-Man trilogy and the Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ horror series, it’s a little-known fact that he put his own spin on the Land of Oz with this unique prequel. Here, the origin story of the wizard himself is told, revealed to be a human magician and grifter known as Oscar Diggs.
Like Dorothy, Oscar is sucked into the realm of Oz when he’s caught in a ferocious twister, although it’s a ride in a H๏τ air balloon that results in his journey, unlike the unlucky Kansas girl. Upon meeting the people of Oz, Oscar is identified as the long-awaited Wizard that will come to defeat the evil Wicked Witch of the East.
Oz the Great and Powerful is certainly full of Raimi’s usual bag of tricks.
Sensing opportunity, Oscar does his best to maintain the charade, setting out to maintain the facade that he is a genuine wizard while getting filthy rich in the process. Along the way, he has encounters with Glinda the Good Witch and accidentally creates the Wicked Witch of the West.
Oz the Great and Powerful is certainly full of Raimi’s usual bag of tricks, including absurdly cartoonish camera angles, colorful visuals, and a cameo from Bruce Campbell. In a strange, unmistakable way, Oz the Great and Powerful is quite similar to another Raimi classic, Army of Darkness, with both being iconic fish-out-of-water fantasies.
What Oz The Great And Powerful Did Right
There Are Some Hidden Strengths Of This Forgotten Film
In some ways, Oz the Great and Powerful deserves to be more popular than it is. For one, the film does an amazing job conveying the wonder of the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, with special effects that have aged quite gracefully since 2013. Considering how well-versed Raimi is in special effects between his Spider-Man trilogy and horror movies, this is no great surprise.
James Franco is also an amazing choice for the sleazy con-man wizard, whose deceptive nature in the original story is elaborated upon as both a personality flaw and a genuine strength that the people of Oz can use against the evil Wicked Witch. His charisma positively carries the film, and weaves a story that makes a believable set-up for the events of Dorothy’s story.
What Oz The Great And Powerful Got Wrong
It’s Easy To See Why Wicked Is More Popular
Unfortunately, Oz the Great and Powerful‘s lukewarm 56% freshness rating on RottenTomatoes isn’t unfounded. Some lamented Raimi’s overuse of CGI to create a sterile, overly sanded-down world for Oz much like the Star Wars prequels.
The non-Franco performances are also a common point of contention, with Mila Kunis’ Wicked Witch of the East and Michelle Williams’ Glinda often being decried as lukewarm or half-hearted characters. This is doubly true in a post-Wicked world, where these exact same characters’ origins are acted out with far more gusto and appreciation.
Where Oz The Great And Powerful Ranks Among Sam Raimi Movies
The Prequel Is Decent But One Of Raimi’s Weaker Films
At the end of the day, Oz the Great and Powerful is far from the best Sam Raimi movie. While it’s arguably better than some of Raimi’s most paint-by-numbers work, including the bizarre sports drama For the Love of the Game or the supernatural thriller The Gift, it’s clear that Raimi’s detachment from the source material hindered his filmmaking ability here.
I would argue that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz prequel is better than these kinds of films, as well as rough spots in Riami’s career, like directorial debut It’s Murder! or the disastrous Crimewave, but it falls short even on a spectacle level of films as bad as Spider-Man 3. Though underrated as a whole, Oz the Great and Powerful‘s obscurity isn’t surprising.
