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Ultimately, the average viewer who doesn’t know the machinations of politics or religiously follow the RealClearPolitics polling average will walk away with a quick primer on political process. Showrunner Beau Willimon and crew somehow merge legislative detail with pop culture—a feat that should get props from any self-respecting flack who complains voters don’t know what really happens in Washington.
For a movie that looks gorgeous, evokes memories of a cinematic classic and boasts a bundle of star power, “Oz the Great and Powerful” is oddly flat. It’s not that the film is terrible; it’s just not as good as it could or should have been. Based on the “Oz” novels of L. Frank Baum, the story is set decades before events portrayed in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz.” That makes the project a prequel of sorts, and director Sam Raimi knew audiences would compare his work to the classic preceding it.