I was just thinking to myself that I really should have started a blog a few years ago when I worked at a movie theater and had early access to films. The reviews would actually be out BEFORE the film’s and thus I would feel like a real movie reviewer but alas I no longer work at a crappy movie theater for minimum wage so the reviews come later and thus are I’m sure less valuable to you the reader, though if your reading this then maybe it doesn’t matter. Anyway lets take a trip into Tim Burton’s version of Wonderland together shall we.

Alice in Wonderland is a 3-D flick directed by the man, the myth, the legend himself Tim Burton, OK so legend may be a bit TOO much but you can’t deny that Burton is part of that top tier of directors in Hollywood. I’ve always been a fan of Burton’s “twisted” artistic style and for the most part he transitioned that style into his vision of Wonderland (or is it Underland???) It’s not quite on the level of Nightmare Before Christmas or Beetlejuice but it definitely has that Burton touch. The color palette of the film proves to be a nice change from some of Burton’s previous flicks I.E. there are lots of colors and not just variants of Green, Brown and Grey. Even the Victorian era non-Wonderland set pieces of the film pop with brilliant blues and whites which is basically the complete opposite of the kind of world we saw in Sweeny Todd. It’s simply a lovely looking film so if your keeping score at home the Art Department gets an A+.

What about the Actors you say? I shall tell you I answer. The humans or um well the actors portraying various people and creatures for the most part do a fine job. Helena Bonham Carter’s Red Queen is menacing in a bit of a silly way while Anne Hathaway’s Whit Queen is just sort of there, though she gets bonus points for being Anne Hathaway. Alice herself played by Mia Wasikowska is probably the weakest link in the chain, I’m not saying she’s bad she’s just a bit…boring, like I was bored when the focus was on her and not on the visual crack that surrounded her

(YAWN)

and speaking of drugs how about Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, outstanding! An instant classic Depp character right up there with Captain Jack and Edward Scissorhands, The mix of bat-shit crazy and blood-lust savage Scot was so insane, so uncalled for that it worked perfectly…does that make sense? He really stole the show in my mind and I’d love to watch an entire flick based around the character so get on it Burton! The rest of the cast is rounded out with good performances in one form or another. Crispin Glover is great as the Knave of Hearts and the brilliant Alan Rickman is a good caterpillar, though I wish we got more of him. I’d also like to give props for the casting of (blank) as the Jabberwocky. Always glad to hear that voice!

The story of Alice is where people will mostly be split as it’s not an adaptation of the old Disney cartoon but more of a sequel or expanding of Lewis Carroll’s two books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Basically Alice is grown up (well 19) and is set for a boring Victorian life until she follows the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole and into wonderland. We then find out that the inhabitants of Wonderland have been search for THE Alice for a while because she is destined to destroy the Jabberwocky and thus overthrow the Red Queen. Alice has no recollection of ever going to Wonderland and believes everything to be a dream but as you might expect eventually realizes the truth and starts to become the hero Wonderland needs! Man that last line sounded corny…nevertheless we continue along. Without spoiling too much I will say the story itself seemed a little disjointed. Scenes just seemed to happen one after another with nothing solid tying them together. It’s almost like they had several cool scenes storyboarded and had blank pieces of paper in-between each one and they just never filled them in. By the end of the film you know what’s happened and you know how it happened but at least for me you feel that something was missing, maybe it’s something little but something nonetheless.

So minor squabbles aside the film is good boarding on great but I must mention one of the negatives. Sadly the 3-D was very underwhelming. Now it could have been the theater, it could have been the glasses or it could have been the fact that Avatar spoiled my eyeballs for life but something wasn’t right. The 3 Dimensional Image just seemed flat. The film wasn’t shot in 3-D but was converted to it which explains that but doesn’t justify it as films that have used that technique in the past have proven more than capable of handling the job. Also something wonky was going on with the Depth of Field, things in the background of the image appeared blurry, again maybe it was something at my theater but it soured the experience anyway you slice it. Some of the stuff with the Chessur Cat worked well but I assume that’s because it was a separate composition made on the computer and was thus easier to make pop out but alas this is one of the first 3-D films I’ve seen to not do justice to the medium.

"Yeah Depp your awesome, WE GET IT ALREADY!"

Now having said that it in no way ruined the flick for me, I’d still highly recommend it to anyone, well maybe not young kids seeing as how Burton retains his “Scare-The-Shit-Out-Of-Children” ways such as severed heads floating in a moat of what I assume to be blood but beyond that I’d say see it and enjoy it as I did and hopefully my theater was the exception and the 3-D was actually GOOD!

P.S. Not a very memorable Danny Elfman Score…Sad

Final Verdict:

7.5 out of 10

Sinatra Likes Alice in Wonderland