"Watching our hero fill the clown-sized shoes of prophecy is only as unbearable as its creators' inability to make their tale distinct. But enlivening detail is absent from most of Oz the Great and Powerful, a film that is largely distinguished by the fact that it's not quite as flavorless as it could have been (especially when compared to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland) … Yet when a film positions itself in the shadow of a beloved fantasy classic, passable isn't good enough. "Oz" never goes anywhere you don't expect it to. … Oz the Great and Powerful was apparently made by a committee whose honorary speaker just happens to be the director of Drag Me to Hell."