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| Monday, January 28, 2008 12:56 PM |
| On the Viewer - Tin Man |
 by Fëanor |
Way the hell back at the beginning of last month, I started watching the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries Tin Man, which purported to be a post-apocalyptic reimagining of The Wizard of Oz. It's three parts, and although I managed to watch the first two either when they were originally broadcast or shortly thereafter, I had to tape the third one for some reason, and I never had the time or inclination to actually sit down and watch it until a couple of evenings ago, at which point I finally got fed up at the thought of the tape just sitting in my VCR while I was walking around not having ever found out how the story ended.
Anyway, as it turns out, the concluding part is a bit disappointing. The dialogue is pretty corny, and some really lame new characters are introduced in this episode, the worst of whom is DG's dad, who speaks pretty much entirely in mawkish cliches. The filmmakers also collapse what really needed to be a lengthy character development arc between the Tin Man and his son into a couple of scenes, thus eliminating almost all potential believability or effectiveness from that subplot. There are also some pretty hard to believe moments. For instance, when Azkadelia wants to eliminate her sister - her sister who is known to have great magical powers - she puts the girl in a stone box. A box she promptly gets out of. With her magical powers.
Other scenes are just wasted potential, like when DG walks into a black and white vision of Kansas and meets the original Dorothy Gale. That could have been really neat, and instead it lasts for about a second and doesn't really go anywhere. It doesn't help that the show ends with a group hug. Blargh! Never end with a group hug! Unless it's an ironic group hug. And even then... blargh!
Still, the miniseries isn't a total loss. The story is interesting enough that it kept me watching (you know, eventually), and there are some neat special effects and some surprising and entertaining moments.
I don't quite get the title, though. Why Tin Man? I mean, it has a nice ring to it, and the Tin Man is admittedly one of the better and more interesting characters in the story, but his tale is definitely not the central one; it's just one of a handful of subplots that all seem about equally important. It would have made just as much sense to title it Glitch or Raw, and it would have made a lot more sense to title it something like DG or The O.Z.
Anyway, if you missed out on the miniseries, it was no great loss. But if it comes out on DVD at some point and you're bored, it could be worth a rental. |
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