Battle of the Movies: Other Worlds

In the next two weeks there are two movies coming out that involve journeying to other worlds, they are Jack the Giant Slayer, being released March 1st, and Oz: The Great and Powerful, being released March 8th. I am super excited for both of these movies, but I am trying not to get too excited because the magically focused fairy tale type movies which have come out recently have been disappointments.  One of the positives is neither of these are my fav favorite stories, so there is not as much that they have to live up to.

Jack the Giant Slayer

Jack the Giant Slayer stars Nicholas Hoult as Jack.  Hoult most recently stared as zombie R in Warm Bodies (review available in archive) and was surprising charming and entertaining as a coming back to life zombie and I am looking forward to what he will do with Jack.  I like that from the get go of the trailer it says that they will be mucking around with the story of Jack and the Beanstalk so I will not be looking for much similarity to the English folk story. It seems that Jack meets the princess Isabelle, played by Eleanor Tomlinson, who in some way gets kidnapped by Giants who are planning on taking over the world (Giants live in a land in the sky which you can reach by climbing giant beanstalks from magic beans).  He must somehow save the princess and defeat the giants and I am hoping find wealth of some kind to keep in line with the basic story.  This movie also stars Ewan McGregor and Stanley Tucci, resulting in me thinking that it will be a better movies because of the three male leads.
I am expecting a lot of over the top fun and shenanigans with this movie.

Next up coming out a week later is Oz: The Great and Powerful

Oz: The Great and Powerful is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz (1939).  I am a bit more dubious about this movie the Jack the Giant Slayer, because it seems to be tyring to promote a serious film.  It starts James Franco as a unsuccessful magician who gets transported in his hot air balloon to the land of Oz. There he meets three witches played by Milla Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams.  It has been identified that Michelle Williams plays Glinda and I believe the Milla Kunis plays the Wicked Witch of the West (imdb), so I assuming the Rachel Weisz is the Wicked Witch of the West.  I do not know much about this movie's plot other then it is about how the this loser of a magician from Kansas becomes leader of the Emerald City and the exalted Wizard of Oz.  I hope that this movie is able to pull everything together, as the Wizard of Oz is a classic and a lot to live up to.  If it doesn't conclude as if the next movie is ready to start (or at least a good lead up to) I will be quite disappointed.

We will see which one wins out and review will be available to ready shortly.