Oz: The Great and Powerful

Sam Raimi (Spiderman, Darkman, The Evil Dead) brings a lot of great and powerful visual style to Disney's OZ THE GREAT and POWERFUL.

James Franco (in a very sleepy, laid back performance, seems miscast) is the traveling carnival magician swept away by a tornado to the incredible land of OZ.

Raimi does an amazing job of creating the same type of wonder the classic "Wizard of Oz" film did when Dorothy opened the door of her fallen house in OZ and the film shifted from black and white to color.

Raimi's OZ does the same when Franco climbs out of his balloon, but in addition to color, Raimi and his special effects team create an amazing world so full with color and detail your senses just about overload.

Franco soon meets witches Theodora (Mila Kunis) Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams).

Half the fun of the rather slow middle of the film is trying to figure out which witch is good/bad, so no spolier alerts needed here.

The final 30 minutes of the movie are terrific, as OZ and the Munchkins define all odds to battle the wicked witch and some truly scary flying monkees.

These witches can all act and are the best thing in the movie, along with a good supporting performance from Zach Braff as both Frank & Finley.

Director Raimi saves all the Great and Powerful stuff for the last half hour, but what a well crafted conclusion it is. Visually amazing fun that gets a yellow brick road bordered B.