Chatterbox: Pudding's Place

Oz the Great and Powerful: A rambly review

Spoilers for the movie itself and also for SyFy's Tin Man and kinda-sorta season one Once Upon a Time (kinda-sorta in that a plot arc is mentioned).

I just got back from seeing it. My expectations were not *terribly* high (in that I was expecting an Oz!version of Burton's Alice in Wonderland: visually stunning, with mediocre writing and acting ranging from wooden to decent), and they were basically met. This version of Oz is even more breathtaking than Burton!Wonderland, and I readily admit I spent a good portion of the movie staring fixedly at the gloriously detailed and 100% computer generated background, especially whenever we were focused on Our Heroes, because Our Heroes were... well, boring.

The plot was bland, uninspired, and predictable where it wasn't being a complete mess. The dialogue was meh, as was most of the acting (Rachel Weisz was by far the most interesting to watch, as she hammed it up deliciously whenever she wasn't being surprisingly subtle with Evanora's discomfort with Theodora's crazy. Also: sparkly dress of win and green lightning hands, GO). 

There was this part of my brain that WOULD NOT shut up while I was watching that insisted on comparing everything to SyFy's Tin Man, god knows why. In particular whenever Evanora's flying baboons were onscreen, all I could think was "those are really big mobats, i wonder if evanora carries them around in her chest when she's not using them, too. how do they all fit?" and it was terribly, terribly distracting. Of course it didn't help that Evanora also wore black feathers and a gigantic emerald around her neck. (Evanora DOES also shoot green lightning out of her hands, which is something Az DOESN'T do. I mentioned that, didn't I? It's really freaking awesome. Not as awesome as being able to suck out people's souls a la Dementor, but whatevs). Nor that breaking said emerald turns her into an old crone who looks kinda sorta like the one that possessed Az, if you squint. Therefore, Evanora is clearly the Witch of the Dark. Headcanon!

Evanora also channelled a bit of Regina Mills, for some reason. I don't know. But her... thing... about Glinda felt VERY similar to Regina's... thing... about Mary Snow during the Mary-killed-Kathryn arc in season one of OUaT. COMPLETE WITH VICTORIOUS (and slashy) FACE-TOUCHING. Because Evanora's utter hatred of Glinda is never adequately explained (a lot of things aren't), I'm choosing to believe that she had a crush and was viciously rebuffed, and that prompted her realization that Glinda's goody-goody act was nothing but a cover for her UTTER DOORMAT-NESS and that Glinda would be a TERRIBLE leader (she would, seriously. what kind of leader just waits around with the vague hope that someone will show up to save everyone without even a HINT of a backup plan?), so she framed Glinda for the king's murder and seized power herself. Considering how she's all, isn't it marvelous how clear everything is and whatever when she turns Theodora evil, it's not even that much of a stretch. Headcanon!

(I liked Evanora a lot, can you tell?)

I don't know what the writers were trying to do with Theodora. Seriously. The only sense I got of her character was that she has The Temper and makes fireballs. And that she's an unbearably naive idiot. And there were weird Snow White parallels, with the apple and everything. Also, does water make ALL witches burn, or just Theodora? Were her BURNING TEARS OF ACID an intentional reference to book!Elphaba's "tears, they burn like fire" thing?

There was a bit when Theodora threw a fireball at the OBVIOUSLY NONCORPOREAL head of Oscar, and then said "Not so great and powerful after all, huh?" and I was the only one in the theater who laughed. Not because it was such a hammy line (it was, though), but because that's literally ONE WORD OFF ("powerful" instead of "terrible") from what Azkadellia says as she steps over the Mystic Man's corpse after sucking out his soul like a Dementor. It was awesome when Az said it, 'cause she has both the firepower to back it up (I mean, she just uncerimoniously ate the guy's soul) and the boast itself comes from a place in her actual characterization: Az is powermad but also insecure as a result of being her parent's unfavorite, and the Mystic Man (a) is a symbol of hope for the resistance and especially for DG & Co, and (b) insinuates that DG is more powerful than Az seconds before she eats his soul. So this line, in her case, is her way of telling DG (who is forced to watch the whole exchange 'cause she's a prisoner) that Az is more powerful than the Mystic Man and therefore more powerful than DG, who looked to the Mystic Man for guidance. And it works, since DG is clearly terrified.

With Theodora, on the other hand... I guess she was trying to do the same thing? Except... her motivation for getting rid of Oscaris revenge because he spurned her, and she wants to kill everyone else, too... for the evulz, I guess? It's never really explained why she wants to destroy everyone instead of just Oscar.

For that matter, what was the DEAL with the "final battle?" What's the difference between citizens of the Emerald City and the people who live in Glinda's giant... bubble thing? They look the same to me. Are they the same people? Why are they living in both places? If they're not loyal to Evanora, why aren't they with Glinda in her bubble? They must not be loyal to Evanora, 'cause they were protesting when she was publicly torturing Glinda. But why? If they were only loyal to Evanora until they found out she'd framed Glinda (which... I think is what the writers were getting at?), how on EARTH did they find out? No one told them! I just... gack. I don't know.

And then, conveniently, NO ONE noticed Oscar just popping in and huggling Chistery (Er, the flying bellhop monkey. I dub him Chistery, because I can't remember what his actual name was). Even though he was out in the open around the wreckage of the balloon that everyone was ogling right before Oscar popped up. Um... I don't really... understand what was going on here. I really don't.

The villains were VERY nice to refrain from attacking as soon as they punctured Glinda's bubble. You have a group of untrained, frightened people who are FORBIDDEN TO KILL ANYONE even, apparently, in self defense, who now have NOTHING to protect them, and whom you want dead for... some... reason. You have an army of giant mobats and Winkie soldiers. And you just... what... sit on your hands and wait for them to stockpile fireworks and build a giant projection machine and a hot air balloon. Bzuh?

The only explanation I can come up with ties into my earlier headcanon about Evanora framing Glinda for the greater good of Oz (and partially because she was spurned). There's not anything actually *wrong* in Oz before Oscar shows up, except the decimation of China Town (and that happens *because* of Oscar showing up). Everything Evanora does is *reactive* except the random plundering of China Town. The country seems to be running smoothly enough. The people are happy. The city's wealthy (hellooo, giant piles of gold!). There's nothing *wrong* that we can see. It follows that Evanora doesn't *want* to ruin Oz, and is dedicated to being a good ruler. This is supported by the fact that she has NO interest whatsoever in destroying Glinda's people (she specifically intends to drive them AWAY from the Emerald City without slaughtering them--it's Theodora who's all LEAVE NO SURVIVORS, RAWR). Every action she takes is clearly intended to keep her own power without having to resort to genocide; even razing China Town is a (very extreme) attempt to convince Oscar that Glinda IS evil and needs to be killed as quickly as possible. It's clear that, when she gives the Apple of Evil to Theodora, she's expecting Theodora to end up like herself, and when Theodora goes completely nuts and is hellbent on revenge and genocide, Evanora is visibly not comfortable with it. 

So basically, the reason Glinda's people have the time to build Oscar's giant con is that Evanora DOESN'T want anyone but Glinda dead and she's not willing to commit genocide to do it, and she spends that time trying to stop Theodora from killing *everyone* and/or trying to talk Theodora down from DESTROY EVERYTHING mode.

Seriously, this is the only conclusion I can come to that makes sense. It also means I was rooting hard for Evanora for the entire climax, because she's demonstrably the best ruler of the four candidates. Glinda, as I mentioned, is a spineless doormat with all the leadership skills of a slug. Oscar is a conman with basically no redeeming qualities whatsoever; he's a complete jerk whose pet the dog moments come off as either giving in out of annoyance (the china girl) or exploitation (Chistery). He never grows out of it or learns to be better, either; the writers were obviously aiming for Moist von Lipwig and got Reacher Gilt instead, if you will. Yes, he's "better" at the end, but because he's never actually shown *learning* to be better, it feels every bit as false and showy as his "defeat" of Evanora and Theodora. Theodora is a genocidal lunatic with no quantifiable motivations outside of blind, vengeance-driven rage. Give me a well-intentioned extremist with my best interests at heart like Evanora seems to be over all that ANY day of the week.

Generally there were a lot of loose ends that were brought up and promptly forgotten. It felt very rough around the edges. I don't think the writers cared very much about what they were writing, honestly. 

Also, both villains are "punished" with ugliness. (Although in Theodora's case, that ugliness is relative. We're told she's "hideous," but, um, that pretty shade of green and those not-so-very disfiguring prosthetics aren't enough to make Mila Kunis hideous or even terribly unattractive. Those contacts were creepy, yes, but Wicked has proven rather resoundly that most brunettes actually look pretty good in that shade of green and there's nothing wrong with having a pointy chin and a hooked nose) This DISPLEASES me. And, in Evanora's case, it was completely random and unnecessary; it's built up that witches DIE when their wands (or I guess just the gems *in* the wands?) are broken, so when Evanora's broke, I expected her to MELT or lose her power or something, not randomly turn into the Witch of the Dark (lite!version though, since her head didn't deform THAT much). GAH. Beauty Equals Goodness ought to be a discredited trope by now! It's 2013!! *beserk button*

TL;DR: Evanora was great and totally turns into the Witch of the Dark from Tin Man in about 500 years, you know it to be true. Everyone else... meh. 

Done now.