Wonderland? Wonderland you say? Last I checked they refer to it as Underland in the movie – though I’m not sure if hardly anyone caught that during my screening of the movie. Honestly I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Tim Burton’s latest tip toe through the movies of old but I think that with the talent of Depp and some interesting characters I could expect a delightful time…

Sum It Up:

This go around with Alice in Wonderland is not meant to be a “reboot” of the classic Disney movie we’ve all grown to love. No, this is supposed to be a loose sequel to that film. It’s a story of how Alice (apparently the dumbest blonde girl ever to exist next to Jessica Simpson) has somehow found yet another never ending rabbit hole to fall into once again. This hole then leads to another universe that seems oddly familiar to her as if she has been there before. The story then continues and we’re introduced to a slew of characters that are both strange and delightful. Yet this time it’s not a matter of just getting back home, Alice must save Underland, sorry, Wonderland.

the Good:

Not sure why I always feel the need to point this out, but if you have Johnny Depp in a movie, more than likely he will do his best to help save it from utter failure. And he does yet again with another Burton movie. Not saying that the movie as a whole is better but it’s at least more enjoyable to watch his performance as the Mad Hatter than to sit and stare at a kaleidoscope of color on screen.

I for one love the art direction of this film. I didn’t see the 3D version and I’m pretty sure that I’m going to stay away from all 3D versions of any films. I might save that rant for just a random rant for the blog.  ANYWAYS, the look is pretty awesome. The landscapes and scenarys are what pull you into this new imagined Wonderland, or wait, Underland and I think it’s leaps and bounds better imagined through Burton’s eyes than through what we were originally introduced to in the first Disney film. The colors and bright characters all seem to leap off the screen with every detail, wether or not they are digitally rendered is not something to be considered. Just take a look at the Mad Hatter’s outfit and all the trimmings and even the attention to detail to his hat and you’ll get some vague idea of what I’m talking about.

I loved the look of the Cheshire cat and found myself wanting to see him more and more. Nuff said.

the Bad:

That’s really all I have to say that was good about the film or that stood out for me to make a point out of it. Let’s get on to what I didn’t like.

I didn’t like how almost everything was CG. Granted I did enjoy how they presented a lot of it, but now that we’ve seen Avatar and what special effects can look like, so you best do your damnest to try and up what your giving the audience. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum for example looked horrible, as well as the caterpillar. I expect Disney to learn from this and maybe go see Avatar a few more times to know how to do human representations in a CG film. Not saying everything that was CG looked horrible but most of it seemed like it was “too much” … and not as refined as say all of the detail that went into making the Mad Hatter so awesome.

Granted there were good characters but we were given so many that the lack of character depth/development started to make my mind go numb. I was starving for more reason to give two shits about the dog, about the caterpillar, about the mouse, about the Mad Hare, about the White Queen, about almost all of the characters that we’re given in the run of the movie. I come away thinking that the movie isn’t about any of them aside from the Mad Hatter and Alice and quite possibly the Red Queen. (i actually felt some sympathy towards the end for her) Just seemed like the entire film was so crammed with intricate characters that there wasn’t enough time to give each one of them enough credit to help them stand on their own and to pull the entire plot together.

Could’ve been longer. Seemed rushed and frantically put together at the end.

I’ve since then gone back to the internet and watched vids of the old Alice and find myself enjoying that movie a lot more.

Final Thought:

It was a good attempt but for me it comes across like it was hastily done in order to get it out in time. So many moves in the right direction only to seemingly fall flat. I’m sure that someday Burton will come back to his story telling days of Edward Scissor Hands and deliver to us a movie worth at least 8 or more stars. Either way, if you’re a Disney fan you might like it, and if you’re a Burton fan you will like it. I just don’t think that anyone will come away loving this movie.

Rating: 6.5/10