Make no mistake, Oz the Great & Powerful a beautiful film... But any true weight of vacancy rests in the script itself - and no feats of acting could have fundamentally changed this trap.

With flying monkeys, Yellow Brick Road and sequin-spangled witches all faithfully reproduced, it's impossible to see this as a standalone film, given it looks like an HD colouring book version of the original movie.

The twister that comes to whirl Oscar into Oz is so preordained you could find its departure information and flight time from an airport travel board.

A portrait of plasticity that could have benefited from more intelligence in its narrative structure, more feeling in its characterizations, and more courage to break away from the generic, one-size-fits-all strain of blockbuster.