Tin Man

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

I was wondering if anyone watched the miniseries on the Scifi Channel, what the reactions are. I haven't heard anything yea or nea about it yet, but it does look very interesting and very well made.

[kpenguin]

A SciFi miniseries thats well-made and interesting?!

[RandomLogic]

It was pretty interesting, a little darker take on it than the original (save the hanging...) it was entertaining.

It was a little cheesy in parts but they did a good job of comparing the traditional story we know with how they redid it, most of the characters are pretty good analogs for the originals except there was only one time where it was a stretch like "really? that was what you thought of?" moment.


Also Sci-Fi makes BSG. I'll give em credit for anything that isn't nearly every Saturday movie that they make, because those are terrible.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

I enjoyed it, but I think when they added the dark elements of it all they should have retained some of the whimsical nature of the original movie. I talked with my dad about it and we both agree it could have been made both dark and whimsical.

I give it a B+.

[RandomFellow]

I was wondering if anyone watched the miniseries on the Scifi Channel, what the reactions are. I haven't heard anything yea or nea about it yet, but it does look very interesting and very well made.

A significantly above average TV movie. Which means, about on par with the average Stargate episode.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

A significantly above average TV movie. Which means, about on par with the average Stargate episode.

That really doesn't help me since I don't watch Stargate, but thanks for the input. Scifi, also made the latest Dune Miniseries, which I think is quite good. I'm sure all the star power in Tin Man helps it too, what with good actors and all.

[Muz]

It was...average, I guess. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great--at least it didn't hold my interest very well. It felt to me very much like their new Flash Gordon series, which also felt decidedly meh to me. (It's done by the same creative team, from what I understand.)

So it didn't work for me, but then it's sort of a subjective thing, I suppose.

On the other hand, I'd rather watch Tin Man than Wizard of Oz.

[The J Pizzel]

My wife watched it while I played WoW. She said it was pretty good. She's a HUGE Wizard of Oz fan. From those books (The Wicked Stepsister, Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West) to Wicked: The Play she does it all. She said it was dark and changed up a bit, but it was still fairly good. So, I would say she gives it a 8.5 out of 10.

JP

[VetMichael]

*Ahem* Settle in, because I watched it and my wife and I dissected it between commercial breaks. Herein is our assessment (sans spoilers, as much as possible):

Concept: Decidedly cool idea, with somewhat predictable twists and turns. Some of the ideas that made us say "COOL" including the place where the "Wicked Witch" kept her flying monkeys! Also, why the "Tin Man" is not made of metal, pretty cool. "Scarecrow" was an interesting take on the "If I only had a brain" theme. And the alterations to the "Great and powerful Wizard of Oz" was pretty cool as well.

Execution: Decidedly MEH - the CGI was cheesy at points, passable at others; nothing my 11 year old son couldn't do over a few weekends. The cities/wonders shown looked more 2-dimensional than the 1939 version. Some of the actors were really good (see below) while others....*BLEH* (see below also). Costuming was rather hit-and-miss; the "Wicked Witch" was HOT which totally messed with my pre-Tin Man concepts, but was a nice distraction. The "Cowardly Lion," however, was cheese-tastic to the extreme (see below). The party tromped through the same forests in Vancouver over and over again (I think I recognized some settings from BSG, Stargate, and Eureka at points).

Actors: Divided into three different categories; the good, the bad, and the MEH...

Zooey Deschanel as "DG," or Dorothy, SUCKED! She pouted her way through every line, had the emotional range of a turnip, was insufferably empty-headed, and couldn't deliver a line in a UPS truck. I kept looking over my right shoulder at the thing she was staring at when she delivered her lines. I honestly wanted the "Wicked Witch" to kill her many, many, many times throughout the miniseries. Verdict: BAD -

Alan C*mm!ng (the auto-censor says we can't print his name here) The guy who played Nightcrawler in X-Men was better than average and even brilliant in some scenes. As the "Scarecrow" Glitch he made a passably good to good character, and played the twists up rather well. Sometimes, it seemed like he was perfect for the part, other times like he couldn't WAIT for the scene to be over. Verdict Good -

Neal McDonough The eponymous "Tin Man" was pretty good, but I didn't see the "If I only had a heart" angle too often, except on the first night. I feel almost sorry for him because he was on some high-profile primetime, major network shows like "Boomtown" which he was good in, but which disappeared after a season, I think. This role was beneath him, but he did a really good job in it as the resident tough-guy/meat shield. Verdict: Good

Kathleen Robertson Oh My GOD she was awesome, hot, believable, HOT, and above all, HOT as the "Wicked Witch" Azkadelia. She had a good emotional range, she delivered line believably, and her acting was probably the best of the bunch.

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The fact that the flying monkeys were actually tattoos on her chest, which she exposed to release them was awesome and her interaction with the invisible-to-her CGI was credible.

Verdict: Good +

Raoul Trujillo as the "Cowardly Lion" Raw - yeah, I'm serious. That's his name. Really. Oh, and for some reason, his costume consisted of the shag carpet my older brother used to have in his 1982 Chevy conversion van...and it looked like it was just glued on hap-hazardly. His hit-and-miss use of 3rd person references, particularly to himself, were distracting as was his semi-primitive "Half-Orc" style of speaking. I couldn't care less about his character. I don't know if it was the way he was written, or if he's just not that good of an actor, but my Verdict: Bad

Richard Dreyfus Yeah, THAT Richard Dreyfus. He's come a long way from Close Encounters and Jaws and even What About Bob? and not in the right direction. His acting was okay-ish

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especially in his "drug crazed lethargy"

but as the Mystic Man/Wizard of Oz, he was lukewarm at best, with downright tepid being his usual. Verdict: MEH


Miscellaneous Some of the things were cool, others not, IMHO. Here is a spoiler list of hot and not:

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the "Two Little Princesses" song got irritating after a while, especially when DG sings it

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The steam-punk take on OZ society was decidedly cool, particularly in Central City (think Emerald City after it falls) with hookers, phone sex, drugs, cars, fascist-state police, and various and sundry scoundrels

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The munchkins played a small, insignificant role as guerilla-type fighters. I would have liked them to be in the final parts of the mini series, but they are largely forgotten 10 minutes into the OZ quest.

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Costuming for Azkadelia and her "longcoat" henchmen is standard, if cool, bad-guy issue, I think. The rest - MEH. Except for whomever did the Cowardly Lion "RAW" - they should be beaten briskly about the head and neck with a stout cudgel

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The whole psychic angle on the cowardly lion and his clan was interesting, if contrived in places.

Thus ends my rant/critique. If I had to give it a grade, I'd say it was B-/C+ which, for a SciFi miniseries is pretty darn good. I'd recommend watching it for the bragging rights, but I wouldn't TiVo it by any stretch of the imagination.

[Kitya]

I recorded it, because it looked interesting, from an Oz fan's point of view (seriously... have all 14 books that Baum wrote, and 5 of the 19 that Thompson wrote.. working on getting the rest), but I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Course.. haven't had a chance to watch Hogfather yet either. *sighs*

I'm expecting to be ticked on interpretation in parts, and interested on interpretation in other parts since that's how I was with the original Oz movie (her slippers were silver dangit!!! SILVER!!!!).

[Closet_Skeleton]

I'm expecting to be ticked on interpretation in parts, and interested on interpretation in other parts since that's how I was with the original Oz movie (her slippers were silver dangit!!! SILVER!!!!).

I have a sad suspicion that you'll be very disapointed and that this will be a reimagining of the film by people unaware of the books.

That's just my cynicism though.

[Kitya]

Yeah.. I have a feeling you're probably right. I certainly was irritated with the Return to Oz movie.

[BURNhollywoodBURN]

It was pretty interesting, I liked its creativity. However, I was kind of peeved at how its plot suddenly strayed way too far from the movie's. Although the acting was below average, the script was very, very good. So altogether, it was a pretty good show.
Idea:
How about the next posters name their favorite character?
Cain

[ARMOURERERIC]

Greetings,

I would have posted here sooner, but was having log in issues.

I am a professional full time armourmaker. Tin Man was my most serious gig yet, I made all the steel arms for the longcoats and those big shoulders for Kathleen Robertson (sans the brass plating, they did that in Vancouver)

I hope my work made the prduction a little bit better, it was 10 days of gratifying "armouring hell" back in march. I even decided to "pull a WETA" and put some extras on ebay.

Thanks,

Eric Joseph
James River Armoury
San Diego
www.jamesriverarmoury.com