Movie review: 'Oz the Great and Powerful'

The “Spider-Man” helmer's “Wizard of Oz” origin story stars James Franco (“127 Hours”) as Oscar “Oz” Diggs, skirt-chasing illusionist for the two-bit Baum Family Circus, the first of many amusing and subtle references to L. Frank Baum's “Oz” books and the beloved 1939 film.

His former sweetheart Annie (Oscar nominee Michelle Williams) insists Oz has a good heart, but his aggrieved assistant Frank (Zach Braff) and the strongman he's cuckolded (Tim Holmes) would be unlikely to agree. Besides, Oz has no interest in becoming just another good Kansas farmer like Annie's new fiance; he wants to be great — and preferably rich and powerful to boot.

While fleeing the strongman's fury in a hot-air balloon, Oz gets swept away in a fearsome tornado. As the film slowly morphs from black and white to vivid color, the exotically shaped mountains, the enormous musical flowers and the sharp-toothed fairies indicate he isn't in Kansas anymore.

The first person the flimflamming magician encounters in this strange new land is the naive and fetching witch Theodora (Mila Kunis), who desperately wants to be good. She believes Oz has come to fulfill local prophecy about a great wizard bearing the name of the land who would free the people from the tyranny of the wicked witch and become the new king.

Not one to let the truth get in the way of his great and powerful aspirations, Oz lets Theodora escort him to the Emerald City, where he meets her suspicious older sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz), the royal adviser. While Theodora quickly trusts and falls in love with Oz, Evanora suspects he is a fraud and rapidly dispatches him to overthrow the bad witch.