Much Ado about NOTHING

Zero Dark Oz

The only movies I've seen lately are Oz the Great and Powerful (in 3D) and Zero Dark Thirty. Quite a combination! One is Disney's overproduced, cash-in prequel to a classic film, and the other is a gritty, often horrific docudrama about the hunt for a terrorist, complete with grisly torture scenes. Simply as a mental exercise, I've been trying to think if these movies, which seem so utterly different on the surface, have anything in common. And guess what, they do!

1. Female characters (witches, a CIA agent) obsessed with an elusive and confounding male figure (a "wizard", Osama bin Laden).
2. Unusual settings: Islamabad and Oz, both of which seem like bad dreams -- for very different reasons.
3. People flying -- in bubbles and helicopters.
4. Explosions; they figure prominently in both stories.
5. Scenes with monkeys!

Yes, these films are actually quite similar when you think about it. It's as if the directors got together and compared notes. Even the titles mirror each other, if you use a cracked mirror: Oz, ZerO.

I'll wager I'm the only genius on the entire Internet to point out these curious similarities.