Tin Man: Initial reactions: SOME SPOILERS

I am of course a huge Sci-Fi channel fan. And I've been seeing promos for their new movie Tin Man for some time.

It finally started on Sunday, and so we recorded it as well as part 2 on Monday and part 3 last night. Generally we don't have that much time for TV, but since all the series shows, Heroes, Chuck, etc.. are coming to an end, we figured we would have time to watch them.

As it turned out, last night we were free and so up came part 1 of 3.

I am not a huge fan of Sci-Fi movies usually. They are more often than not, poorly written, badly acted and short on money when it comes to special affects. I still have bad dreams of Raptor Island where the blood splatters looked like a bad video game.

But Tin Man looked different right from the start. Lets start with one of my favorite new actresses Zooey Deschanel from other movies such as Failure to Launch,
Almost Famous, Bridge to Terabithia and of course the movie I fell in love with her, Hitchhiker's Guide. We also have Neal McDonough as the Tin Man. Now add in a plethera of other very good character actors including Kathleen Robertson as the the Evil Witch and Richard Dreyfuss as the Mystic Man (Oz).

After that they add in a fantastic world where the evil witch has already taken over and a bunch of jack booted thugs called the Long Coats carry out most of her desires.
The script so far has been excellent, compelling, imaginative and unique so far.

The way the writers combined a completely new story but still tied it to the roots of Wizard of Oz is just short of astounding.

Of course you have Dorothy, who is called DG in Tin Man. She rides a motorcycle instead of a bike and is raised by 2 people who are not her parents. Including Em instead of Auntie Em. In Tin Man she is just trying to find her way home after being swept up by the tornado and plopped down in The Outer Zone, which is called the O.Z. by the locals. She is told to follow the old road or brick road, which happens to be made up of yellow bricks. She follows it to the Central city, instead of the Emerald City to find the Mystic Man, ie. The wizard.
But in fact she is supposed to searching for the Emerald (great tie in) so she can find her place as Queen of the O.Z. which is her true home.

On her journey she finds Glitch, who has had half his brain removed, and there is now a zipper on top of his head. He makes a great scarecrow. And later turns out to be the chief adviser to the Queen.

They then find the Tin Man, who is an ex-cop from Central City. His wife and son were stolen from him, and he was trapped in an old Tin diving suit and forced to watch their abduction, over and over again. DG frees him, and he is now sworn to protect her. They even have one scene where he gets an old axe to carry around.

Finally, the cowardly lion is one of the most imaginative new characters. A wolverine humanoid who can see the future and the past with their hearts and have the ability to heal. They look ferocious but are really very timid. Raoul Trujillo, does an outstanding job in this roll.

At the end of part 1, the four of them have gone to see the Mystic man and told to search out her home in the Northern Island. As she gets there she realizes this is her home and all the stories her "father" told her all those years were about the O.Z. Her mother isn't there, and the place doesn't looked lived in. Raw feels great pain here and shows DG that this is where her Sister, the wiked Azkadellia, had killed her as a child. Her mother had given DG some of her life force to revive her and sent her to the other side to be raised.

About that time Azkadellia shows up as well where they throw in the scene of her mother calling for DG just like in the original Oz when Dorothy looks in the crystal ball.
Then they escape and run but Azkadellia's tatoo's become flying creatures that look pretty close to monkeys. They chase them through the columned hall the same as in the forest scene in Oz. They end the show with three of them captured and the Tin Man killed.

So far, as you can probably tell, I am really enjoying the show. I grew up watching Wizard of Oz every year while I was a child. And the fact that they can change the story sooooo much and still stay true to the roots of the story makes me give this mini-series a big thumbs up.

I can't wait to watch parts 2 and 3.

Until next time...