Reflections on The Wizard of Oz

Many people disdain Hollywood on the grounds that special effects are rampant and stories are useless. The Wizard of Oz began to give them a loud slap. This 4: 3 ordinary scale, black-and-white photography of The Sorrow of Magicians gives us a vivid introduction to the protagonist. His depressed acting career, poor livelihood, smooth and eloquent Jianghu habits, selfish, mean, arrogant and arrogant personality defects, as well as the flame of truth, goodness and beauty still burning inside him, are slowly revealed with plain pictures. At the beginning of the film, everyone was whispering why it was a "black and white movie", but with Franco's jokes jumping, the cinema suddenly became quiet, and everyone was absorbed in it, watching his magic and his sweetheart marry someone else's wife, which was worrying. By doing this stunt, Sam Raimi not only pays tribute to the original classics, but also proves in the most irrefutable way that Hollywood still has the ability to capture the hearts of those who are eager for the name of "3D magic special effects blockbuster" with ancient and pure narrative, suspense, humor and carefully finished characterization.

Only this unique retro style also slapped Sam Raimi himself. When the raging tornado widens the screen, embellishes the screen with colorful colors and brings people into the colorful fairy tale world, the film becomes lifeless, and the original lifelike characters are pressed into thin paper and have no personality dimension. The protagonist of The Wizard of Oz is the little girl Dorothy. Now it's a big shot who dares to break into the magic circle, and the intention of re-creation is obvious. According to this setting, it can be appreciated by the whole family and suitable for dating couples, which is a win-win situation for business and art. However, the tone of the finished product is too low, and such efforts are in vain. Fairy tale country is black and white, with solemn boundaries and no gray areas. The screenwriter seems to be afraid of being too "adult" and persistently emphasizes the "evil" attribute of witches. Finally, when she was executed, she was judged as a "good person". Good guys and bad guys have clear moral labels, and they know each other and stick to it. This is the original fairy tale idea, and there is no breakthrough in the film. The lines are completely step by step, except for the monkey's one-liners If you have read some fairy tales, you can definitely guess the next sentence after listening to the previous one. The Wizard of Oz underestimates the psychological maturity of children now. The American cartoon channel or Chuang: The Rise animated series produced by my family is aimed at children aged 7- 12. Among them, the plot is still morally chaotic, right and wrong are vague, the wicked do evil for "just reasons", and the good people have no choice in the face of indirect harm. So, the child sitting next to the author in the magical land is about eight or nine years old. He has been very noisy and annoying, but before class, he said a big truth: "Bad guys are too easy to fail, and they are really boring."

The film has many eye-catching visual effects, from the magnificent buildings in emerald city and Oz, to the worship and begging of porcelain dolls and long-winged monkeys, as well as clouds and bubbles flying, which is more than enough to render the fairy tale atmosphere. Watching special effects movies is just like playing "just strolling around" in an amusement park, focusing on the wonders exposed from time to time, but no matter how close the wonders are, there must always be a gap in the middle, otherwise the investors can't afford it and the audience will be aesthetically boring. Playing amusement parks depends on tourists teasing each other to fill in the middle emotions, while movies rely on story tension and emotional impact, so that people will not feel bored when there are no wonders. Watching Wonderland, the author feels like sitting in a lonely place that he has just visited, waiting for the wonders to fade, just right, feeling empty, as if he were out of it. Moreover, the lens scheduling of those wonders is too simple. It's a reminder to connect the client's reaction camera first, and then connect something strange. Does Sam Raimi put his son's Christmas presents in the same box every year?

The beginning of Dreamland is very attractive, but it is anticlimactic after it. There are only two things that impress me in mediocrity. First, the shape of the western witch appeared, and the shadow on the wall showed a ferocious curve, followed by the outline of the famous pointed hat. At that moment, nostalgia was no less than seeing Dr. Jones's cowboy hat. Later, Ms. West showed her true green face and flew on a broom, which was really full of the unique feeling of remake. Another interesting thing is to find the figure of Sam Raimi's old friend Bruce Campbell, who appeared in almost every director's work. Recently, this gentleman only played the leading role in the American TV series "Burning Notice", and rarely appeared on the big screen. So after seeing his name in the credits, the author paid attention to it all the time. In view of the fact that "one person plays two roles" in Dreamland far exceeds that in Cloud Map (people and animals can be divided into two parts), it is difficult to determine where Mr. Kan will be a monster. Towards the end, I recognized the old face under the strange makeup of the emerald city guard.

The movie seems to spend all its budget on fantastic scenery and CG characters, with little action. It is nothing more than putting a few fireballs, shooting a few "lasers", throwing a few javelins, smashing a hole in the ground, exploding a hot air balloon, and smashing the ceiling. The author is dissatisfied with the lack of confrontational momentum in the finale of Harry Potter. Now, it seems that Dreamland has almost started again, only because the original book didn't play well. To some extent, the "construction" and "destruction" of special effects movies should be proportional. The panorama of Pandora in Avatar shows the courage to explode all over the sky and overthrow the tree of life. Alice in Wonderland takes turns to show the mystery on the other side of the rabbit hole, and there is an unstoppable destruction of the fire dragon on the roof. Nowadays, the audience is somewhat destructive, not to mention that computer special effects can destroy the beautiful scenery and make it more beautiful than it used to be. Maybe you will say that destruction is too violent, but don't forget how the witches in the original and the classic version of The Wizard of Oz died. A big scene conflict doesn't mean shooting violence. Maybe you think that destruction will scare children, but compared with the "monster shock" that Franco encountered when he first entered the magic realm, the climax fight is just a warm sip of water in the shock effect. Is it really for the sequel?