[thecodont]

The character arc of Oscar Diggs (a.k.a. The Wizard) left me unsatisfied. It appeared that he turned at least one woman to evil by seducing and abandoning her — what kind of hero is that? Did his saving Oz (for the time being) from the two evil witches (both of whom he seduced and abandoned) redeem him?

All that aside, I enjoyed the movie.

[morphing libertarian]

He was a rake but redeemed himself

[GeronL]

that does not sound fam friendly

[chesley]

Well, in the original Oz books, the character of the Wizard before the arrival of Dorothy was quite ambiguous.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

The character arc of Oscar Diggs (a.k.a. The Wizard) left me unsatisfied.

What I didn't like about Franco's Oz was that in the original movie, Professor Marvel/Wizard (Frank Morgan) was a fast-talking flim-flam man whose dialog as full of quips and witty banter not unlike Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark and/or Sherlock Holmes.

The dialog of Franco's Oz was dull and plodding in comparison.

...both of whom he seduced and abandoned...

It's true that he seduced Theodora, (Mila Kunis) but he did not seduce Evanora. (Rachel Weisz)

Evanora lied and only led Theodora to believe this so that her heart would be turned against Oz and to evil.

See: Evanora the Wicked Witch of the East

All this being said, I still liked the movie overall and how it tied into the original.

[tanknetter]

It appeared that he turned at least one woman to evil by seducing and abandoning her

Well, it was pretty apparent that she (Mila Kunis' character) was already pretty far down the old yellow brick road to c-r-a-z-y by the time Oscar showed up. Oscar (who was a rake) was shown as wrestling with how to deal with her going from flattering hero-worship to "we're going to get married, and rule the kingdom and live happily ever after, and, and, and" at a rate of acceleration that would make NASA jealous.

And he didn't even really abandon her. He was manipulated to go out onto a quest by her sister, who then further manipulated Mila Kunis to go completely over the edge and do something incredibly rash.

[trebb]

what kind of hero is that?

Believable? Unless the fairy-tale versions make more sense to one.