Alice in Wonderland

ALICE IN WONDERLAND REVIEW
by Odie the Popcorn Fanatic

There's no secret, I love Tim Burton every film I watch are the best of best. Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Pee Wee's Big Adventure are among my favourites. This is really due to some excellent creative and Gothic style visuals. However lately he seems to be taking this path of remaking or re-imagining classic movies, Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are not my personal favourites so I was kinda skeptical about his version of Alice in Wonderland. It really shocked me that Disney were distributing this picture as Burton used to work with Disney many years ago as a uncredited animator on 'Fox and the Hound' (I think)
As we all know that Disney made the classic animation which was a surprise box office flop back then but its become a firm favourite with the Disney fanatics.
So going in this film, I went to see this at the Imax and in 3D. The visuals are stunning as you expect but I begin my problem straight away, Alice. I know she's an unknown actress but she was DULL (My opinion!) she had no expression on the face and she just dragged on and on, she's on screen for 80 to 90% but she really bore me a lot so for your main character, not a very good start. Seeing Alice is the main character, you really need to make the character interesting but I really couldn't connect with the character, with 3D glasses on she still was 2D.
What kind of helps with this movie characters so lets start with the ladies favourite actor, Johnny Depp AKA Mad Hatter. Mad Hatter was a fun character so I can expect fancy dress based on this character for the next few months. This character could of stolen the film but the movie focuses on Alice so Burton made a good choice there. I was glad that that they didn't make the Mad Hatter too over the top otherwise the movie would have been too much. Depp does a good job though I'm getting tired that he's become a regular in Burton's movies, like in Willy Wonka, I was hoping that one time Burton regular Michael Keaton would have accepted the part of Willy Wonka but for some reason Johnny Depp got the part so I often wondered on how Keaton would have approached the part.
Other supporting characters were OK but I really really didn't like the Red Queen. Again another regular Helena Botham Carter plays the part. I just feel she didn't feel the part as the bad queen and again like Alice she was really flat and at some points she goes too much over the top as if trying to dominate the movie screen. So I couldn't really connect or enjoy the character as well.
Voice characters were top notch especially Cheshire Cat voiced by the legendary Stephen Fry, I love the guys voice, he was perfect for the Smiling Feline. So I had no problem with this. Alan Rickman was great, the March are was of course mad but I can't remember who did the voice but the Hare was fun and a good pair with Hatter especially at the Tea Party scene. Matt Lucas as Tweedle Dum and Dee were decent but you forget about them very easy as the movie goes along. OK if you haven't seen the movie I might go into spoilers from now.

The one thing I was looking forward to was seeing the Jabberwocky, you didn't see this in the cartoon movie and in this movie, they hyped it up going from 'You gotta slayed the Jabberwocky' then 'She can't kill the Jabberwocky' then 'Unleash the Jabberwocky'. I was looking forward to this so much because it was going to be voiced by my all time favourite Christopher Lee, so I knew he was perfect so we got to see Jabberwocky versus Alice but a few sodding problems they gave. They gave Lee 3 lines of dialogue and the battle scene was short and boring. Such a bad move, unless you seen the Lord of the Ring style movies and the battle scenes were enjoyable but the battle scenes in this movie was only 5 minutes in total. Alice versus Jabberwocky, Hatter vs Knave of Hearts and the other comic relief characters fighting. But my only problem was where was the Queen battle did they decide to go to one side and witness the battle or did they play Poker cause in this battle you DON'T SEE ANY BATTLE WITH THE QUEENS!! What was the hell was that about! This was a huge problem with the whole movie is very heavy dialogue and I honestly don't find it entertaining for any young kids so when you have a battle scene for only 5 minutes is very pitiful. So I can tell you that the battle sequence was badly designed and not well thought. Oh and no one dies in the battle except one character but you'll know which one from the first moment Alice goes to Wonderland first time. I forgot to mention that the Evil Cards looked good especially with a Terminator style armor so I'll give credit for that.

How does it fare up in 3D, well to be honest they didn't take advantage with the whole 3D a lot especially when 90% is just talking so how can you make a movie like that in 3D? There were a few moments but predictable ooh the cup flew straight to me from the march hare. But I haven't seen the movie in 2D so I cannot compare, but 3D doesn't work for this movie, Avatar and Coraline are the only decent 3D movies that worked well for me.

Overall the CGI was great but aside from a few decent actors, it was just your average popcorn movie but I can't recommend this for children, I saw a few kids bored in their seats so next time make it more fun rather than this script that lacks.

For me, this was slightly better than Willy Wonka update but still not Burton's Best.
If you want to see the best Tim Burton movie, go check out Ed Wood, but that's another story.

I'll give it 6 popcorn pieces out of 10.