Magical return to land of Oz James Franco as Oz with Michelle Williams on Oz The Great and Powerful Source: The Sunday Telegraph The latest spin on L Frank Baum's Oz mythology adheres very closely to the template of Victor Fleming's beloved 1939 film version of The Wizard Of Oz starring Judy Garland. Oz The Great And Powerful begins in Kansas in drab black and white, introducing carnival huckster Oscar Diggs (James Franco). It's only when Diggs is transported over the rainbow by a twister to the merry old land of Oz that things are seen in glorious colour. And while he's there Oscar meets a lot of folk who look and sound just like people he knows back home. Just like Dorothy's odyssey, it could all just be a dream. The film is a prequel that shows us how a razzle-dazzling charlatan pretending to have magical powers (played by Frank Morgan in 1939) came to be the ruler of a magical place. Diggs meets three witches one good, one bad, and one not sure played by Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz and Mila Kunis. He teams up with a monkey (voiced by Zach Braff) and a tiny girl made out of porcelain (voiced by Joey King) and sets out to defeat the wicked witch and claim the throne of Oz, along with its rivers of gold. The movie, directed by Spider-man's Sam Raimi, is full of CGI landscapes far more elaborate than the painted backdrops of the 1930s version, yet obviously based on them. The Emerald City retains its Art Deco lines and the people of Oz still sport weird facial hair and folksy costumes. There are evil flying monkeys, a field of dream poppies, a yellow brick road and, yes, munchkins too. There are (practically) no songs though, and it's hard to argue that people would care much about the original without those great Arlen and Harburg numbers like Over The Rainbow or We're Off To See The Wizard. The wonderment of Oz was always way more than purely visual, but Oz The Great And Powerful bets the farm on special effects sequences that quickly lose their ability to awe. Fleming's Oz had unforgettable characters. The ones here are bland and their adventure goes on way too long. It's all flim-flammery and no real magic. Now Showing