“What has one thumb and looks like it’s bored to be in this movie?”

There are some really great things about Oz the Great and Powerful and some really bad things, but at the very least, it’s not the forgettable trifle I expected it to be.

I liked Oz the Great and Powerful, and I mean that only in the most defensive-sounding way possible. It’s hard to even write this review without coming off a huge Sam Raimi apologist. Raimi has this highly-saturated, schlocky aesthetic that’s a little melodramatic and not quite realistic, but never quite camp, which a lot of people understandably hate. Whereas Tarantino almost always puts clear signposts to indicate when he’s being serious and when he’s being tongue-in-cheek, Sam Raimi’s scenes are always sort of breakdancing on the line between the two. To me this approach has always seemed a bit rock n’ roll, a way to say “yeah, this is silly but I’m doing it anyway because it’s fun.” He seems so blasé about whether you think his films are “Important” or not, and it’s refreshing.

Oz the Great and Powerful is not a great movie, but I don’t think anyone set out to make a “great movie.” I usually hate when critics use this excuse to give a movie a pass. Just because you made a bad movie on purpose I’m supposed to ignore that it’s bad? But if I look at any “comparable” title – Alice in Wonderland, The Hobbit, Snow White and the Huntsman – Oz is just much better. Even the simple idea that “Oz” might all be a figment of James Franco’s character’s imagination gives it a subtextual richness that the aforementioned films all lacked. All of them, Oz included, are essentially about magical faeries punching each other. But Oz at least hints at the idea that it’s not just about magical faeries punching each other.

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Yale doctoral candidate and award-nominated entertainment blogger James Franco stars in the just-released trailer for Oz, the Great and Powerful, from Sam Raimi. Franco, in the Johnny Depp role, plays a Kansas magician who gets transported to the mythical land of Oz, where the inhabitants come to believe he’s a great wizard come to save them. Will he succeed, or will he dicknose them all?

When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), 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. [Apple]

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At some point today, we’re going to get a trailer for Oz: The Great and Powerful, the highly-anticipated film that asks the question: “Hey, how did that dude behind the curtain get to run that crazy land anyway?” Starring James Franco and directed by Sam Raimi, the prequel to the classic, The Wizard of Oz, introduces us to Oscar Biggs, who is whisked away to the magical land and decides that he can really make a difference by conning everyone into thinking he’s a wizard.

Standing in his way, though, are the three witches – played by Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams – and they’re not really buying his BS. Williams will play Glinda the Good Witch, and I’m predicting that Weisz will play the Wicked Witch. That leaves Kunis as, I’m guessing, the Smoking Hot Witch. At least that’s how my whole casting process would go. That’s not to take anything away from Weisz, who is also quite the looker, but she’s had a kid, so I assume she’s cranky.

Speaking of Kunis, here’s a clip of her talking about Oz. I’d probably watch her talk about paint drying. And after the jump, you can check out Entertainment Tonight’s rehind behind-the-scenes look at the film, which hits theaters next March.

UPDATE, MY PRETTIES: Here’s the trailer for Oz.

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It’s always interesting to see what fights a studio will pick over casting choices, because their demands always seem a bit strange and arbitrary.  Right now Sam Raimi is making a Wizard of Oz prequel at Disney called Oz, the Great and Powerful, about “the tale of a young illusionist with a grandiose attitude who is forced to flee a traveling circus. His hot air balloon is swept up by a tornado to the land of Oz, which is run by two magical wicked witches.”

With James Franco is set to play the wizard, Raimi reportedly wants two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby) to play one of the elder witches, but Disney is pushing for Michelle Williams instead.  It’s a weird fight, because it’s not like either of them is box office poison or a surefire draw.

It’s unclear how far Raimi is willing to take his fight, but one agent familiar with the director notes that he can be doggedly tenacious in such situations: Infamously, when Sony’s Columbia Pictures brass and virtually everyone else involved with producing the first Spider-Man were pushing American Beauty star Wes Bentley for the role of Peter Parker, it was Raimi alone who insisted on — and obviously ultimately succeeded — in getting Tobey Maguire approved for the star-making part. [Vulture]

Huh.  I guess good on Sam Raimi for sticking to his guns, but really, it’s not like they were trying to stick him with Willow Smith or something.  Instead, it’s just another acclaimed actress I find oddly boring for being a reasonably attractive woman with above-average breasts.  We should find out who actually managed to stay awake during these discussions and hire them as air-traffic controllers.

I still haven’t seen Blue Valentine yet, because although everyone who’s seen it tells me it’s good, the trailer gave me really bad ukulele flashbacks.  (Seriously, for the next month I’d break out in a cold sweat if I so much as smelled a soy chai).  Anyway, I guess it’s supposed to be good because they filmed it, like, totally method, totally guerilla style, to the point where director Derek Cianfrance wanted Baby Goose to go have sex with his onscreen wife Michelle Williams (they’re rumored to be dating).  Watch people have sex?  Who does he think he is, James Franco?

Cianfrance had Gosling and Michelle live together in their rural Pennsylvania house with their onscreen daughter (Faith Wladyka) and watched as they struggled with the real stresses of having to share a bathroom and do the dishes three times a day. Their grocery budget was based on Dean’s salary as a housepainter and Cindy’s a nurse (she never did become a doctor)– $200 every two weeks.

“Mundane domestic tasks have a way of really stagnating two people and deteriorating something that’s beautiful,” Cianfrance said.

He accelerated the relationship’s corrosion by starting off-screen fights between his actors. One night he told Gosling to go into Williams’ bedroom and try to make love to her. Gosling, soundly rejected, ended up sleeping on the couch. [HuffPo]

“Hey, girl… I was just talking to Derek, and he says he wants us to… no, no, the couch is super duper comfy, don’t even worry about it. In fact, we don’t mind it at all, do we, Patches!  …Haha, whatever you’re comfortable with, girl.”

I imagine making love to Baby Goose would be so gentle and considerate, you’d feel just like that girl sliding down a hill on an inner tube.  Exciting, but above all, safe.