Oz the Great and Powerful

Let's get this out of the way early, CGI has to be stopped! It's gone beyond a joke. Just the other day we discussed just how effective the CGI used in 1993's Jurassic Park is. It's used to enhance the physical props and round out the belivability of the world created. However, since Tim Burton got his hand on it... especially for Willy Wonka and Alice In Wonderland... it's become quite clear that CGI IS the world not simply enhancing it.

This is no more apparent than with the ridiculous trailer for Disney's new adventure "Oz The Great and Powerful" directed by Spider-Man and Evil Dead helmer Sam Raimi.

The appeal of the 1939 original is that you can reach out, feel and touch the world. Your imagination does the rest. Your mind ignores that fact you can see the castle in the distance is a painting - but you don't care because you know if you had the chance you could get a hug from The Lion, The Tin Man or The Scarecrow. You fear the talking trees, because you know - even though they are men in suits - those trees could actually get you.

However, the CGI world created here (in what can only be described as "left over effects from Alice IN Wonderland) never once allows you to get lost in the world. Therefore, resonates in NO WAY with it's audience. Sure, we'll go see it because it's Oz... but I tell you know, you won't remember a single moment once you've left the theatre.

Anyhew, this new movie, the first major outing since Return To Oz in the 1980s (which, too, used mostly physical effects) imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum's beloved character, the Wizard of Oz.

When Oscar Diggs (James Franco, a terrible actor who somehow gets work... don't even get me started on this guy!), a small time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he's hit the jackpot - fame and fortune are his for the taking - that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone's been expecting.

Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity - and even a bit of wizardry - Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.

Perhaps I just need a nap, but even thinking about this CGI monstrosity is making me mad. Make me an Oz movie on a giant sound stage with a fake forrest in it, it might look dodgy, but at least we know it's there.