The first half was awesome. Charming, funny, stonking great visuals, and even brilliant 3D. Franco made for an affably likeable scoundrel and Zach Braff made the potentially irritating monkey sidekick a treat.

Unfortunately it's let down by an extremely convoluted and almost unnecessary conflict. Apparently the whole land of Oz is under threat from the Wicked Witch, but we never see anything that might illustrate this. "These are desperate times", says one character. Are they? Things look alright to me.…