standing alone, this movie was not all that bad, however as a sequal it sucked. this is the kind of movie that adds fuel to the fire of those who argue that sequals are a bad thing. i personally love sequals, but i feel that there should be certain guidelines, which were all pretty much smashed by this movie. the number one rule is to never replace the origional actors. unfortunately in many movies, like this one, that rule must be broken because the origional actors are either dead, too old, unavailable, etc. however that is no reason to radically change the characters. scarecrow from a person to a puppet, the lion from a person to a realistic lion, dorothy being de-aged, oz looking nothing like it did in the origional movie. how can this possibly be a sequal. perhaps if this would have been called a retelling of the story and stood alone rather than being a "sequal" it would have been more successful. calling it a sequal is a slap in the face to the fans of the origional and loved the characters and the fact that the movie was very lighthearted. so making it a dark movie was an even bigger slap. if movie companies want to do a sequal than go for it, but either stay true to the origional or lay off.