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Oz the Great and Powerful, a review by Dragonfire

Oz the Great and Powerful



Oz the Great and Powerful is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz that tells the story of how the Wizard became the Wizard.  Some people may expect the story be more like the story from Wicked - the musical and the book it is based on.  Other than the setting and focusing on things that happen before Dorothy ends up in Oz, the two tell different stories tied to the same characters and location.  I have read Wicked and I have the musical soundtrack, so I do know a bit about that version. 

Oscar Diggs works as a magician - stage name of Oz - in a traveling carnival.  Oz tends to chase after anything in a skirt, which leads to him fleeing the carnival in a hot air balloon.  He flies right into a tornado that takes him to Oz.  He meets Theodora, a beautiful young witch who believes that Oz is the wizard everyone in Oz has been waiting for to defeat the Wicked Witch.  Oz has to decide what he is going to do, though he can't seem to stop himself from chasing women, which causes even more complications.

The movie was released in 2D and 3D.  I saw the 2D version. I did not some images that had the potential to look cool in 3D.  The graphics are done well, making the locations in Oz look gorgeous.  The beginning of the movie, when Oscar is still in Kansas, is in black and white, like the original movie, and it only turns to color once he arrives in Oz.   

The story is interesting and entertaining, connecting to things from the original movie as well as things from the book that were left out of that movie - like the village where everyone is made of China.  In addition to showing how the Wizard comes to power, the rise of the Wicked Witch is also covered.  Something with that is a little predictable, though children or people who haven't seen the original movie may find that more surprising.  The story makes sense.  Things are resolved while also leaving some things open for possible sequels.  This is a good family friendly movie, though a few scenes could be scary to younger children.  The flying monkeys are now vicious flying baboons that are freaky.  The characters work and the casting is good overall.  Oscar is hard to like since he is a bit of a jerk. 

I really enjoyed Oz the Great and Powerful.  It is entertaining overall and worth checking out.  I did pick up the movie on blu-ray/DVD.  I believe there are several extras, but I haven't taken the time to check them out yet.



I did post a longer review at Epinions after seeing the movie in the theater.

Oz the Great and Powerful

(From Oz the Great and Powerful on June 24th, 2013)

Stargate, a review by DJ Doena

First I thought about a re-run of Smallville but I have watched this in the middle of last year and it's been a while since I've watched Stargate SG-1.

In order to watch Stargate SG-1, one has to watch Stargate first.



Kurt Russell ... Col. Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neil
James Spader ... Dr. Daniel Jackson
Alexis Cruz ... Skaara
Viveca Lindfors ... Catherine
Mili Avital ... Sha'uri
John Diehl ... Lieutenant Kawalsky
Leon Rippy ... General W.O. West
Erick Avari ... Kasuf
French Stewart ... Lieutenant Ferretti
Jaye Davidson ... Ra

Synopsis: Dr. Jackson is not very renowned in the scientific community. But he is convinced that the great pyramids weren't build during the fourth dynasty 5,000 years ago. He believes that they are much older. A digging back in 1928 confirms his suspicions: buried in the sands of Egypt under a great cover stone with unknown symbols - not hieroglyphs - the Door to Heaven Stargate was found. The Stargate is an ancient device to open an intergalactic connection to the planet Abydos. Dr. Jackson and Colonel Jack O'Neill (and a group of soldiers) go there. O'Neill's job is to evaluate the danger of the situation they are facing.

My Opinion: Unfortunately I haven't seen this movie in the theatres (I went to Star Trek: Generations instead). The idea that alien cultures have been to Earth and have had an influence isn't new, but it was interestingly presented. I also liked that the Abydosians really spoke abydosian (a variant of ancient egyptian) and not just english. The fights were very well choreographed, too, I didn't have the feeling that the weapons of the humans were a match to the ones of Ra's.

To adopt the story for the series they had to make some adjustments (this contains spoilers in regard to the pilot of the series):

• In the movie, Ra is portrayed as the last of his kind, in the series he is one System Lord amongst many - although the most powerful one
• In the movie, Ra is no Goa'uld, his alien body looks totally different
• In the movie, Abydos is in another galaxy, in the series it's the planet closest to Earth
• In the movie, the Stargate is a point-to-point connection to Abydos, in the series it's one in a great network of Stargates
• Ra's Jaffa (who aren't called Jaffa in the movie) don't have an abdomen pouch in which they carry a Goa'uld larva (the term Goa'uld is also an invention of the series)

Additionally one has to activate one's "suspension of disbelief" even more than in the movie, because:

• On most planets the people speak english, no explanation is given (Universal Translator in Star Trek, Translator Microbes in Farscape)
• Most planets look like canadian forrests
• On some planets are earth-like cultures that developed only after the gate was buried
• We never see normal Goa'ulds, they are either rulers or at least scientists, but the huge number of Gua'uld larvae in the Jaffa have to result in a much larger Goa'uld population

Now we can get started ...



(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on February 29th, 2008)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete Second Season marathon, a review by Achim

13. Earthlings  Welcome Here
At a conference on UFOs, Sarah gets a clue that puts her on the trail of the three dots.  Riley has second thoughts about her mission.

My comments:
Wow, that was awkward. While most of the plot didn't really interest me that much (mainly that part with the UFOs...) it was still all put together very well. Then there is the two other story threads which are also very interesting and the story comes out on top in the end.

I mean, come on, Sarah follows a lead where she found three UFOs on the cover of a flyer, looking similar to her dots? In general I don't mind the idea that stands behind that (people found "future technology" and since they can't know that they assume it's alien), just they way it's introduced into the show didn't meet my approval (). Once that was over with there was one more obvious plot twist to deal with but the rest was fine.

Much more interesting to me was how they introduced Riley's back story (including "her" agenda) with a bang. No more hiding, no more guesses or hints. Kaboom, here is what it is, deal with it. That was intercut with interactions between John, Riley and Cameron which re-introduced the theme of jealousy.

Finally there is Ellison who, after initial hesitation, agrees to teach morals and ethics to John Henry. Well, technically we never see him agree, but we see him play chess with the artificial intelligence and discuss related topics.


(only because the, IMO misguided, use of the UFO theme)

(From Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete Second Season marathon on February 14th, 2010)