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I don't get why everyone hates it.



  # comments: 8
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Not Burton's best, but not as bad as people say
My opinion on Alice In Wonderland: Not the greatest, but still an enjoyable film to watch.

Story: Unfortunately, the story isn't that remarkable. Wonderland Underland has fallen under the rule of The Red Queen since Alice has been gone? Check. Alice is theChosenOne that can kill the feared Jabberwock? Check. Alice refuses to believe it, but finds that she can't fight fate? Check and mate (though that's not necessarily a bad thing - there's a reason why Cliche Storms become Cliche Storms, after all).

Acting: Of course, Burton's usual suspects Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter is excellent as always (which is why I'm one of the few who don't mind Tim being their acting pimp — some variety would be nice, but Depp and Carter are great actors). I don't know what the last review was talking about with "changing the accents every other line" — the only times I noticed the change was when the Hatter was pissed, and I thought it was rather effectiveand delightfully so. Our leading lady......err, not good, not bad. The problem is that she doesn't react to the fact that she's in an other freaking world with freaky creatures running amok! The combined Fridge Brilliance that she thinks it's all a dream and that she is a young woman in Victorian England does not help — which is why I cheered when she told off the upper-class pricks via Futterwacken (call it Eternal Sexual Freedom, I call it awesome). Anne Hathaway was very good as the White Queen. Her princess mannerisms being compensation for the fear of becoming evil is particularly intriguing. And Crispin Glover was good as Stayne "the Knave".

Voice Acting: Scores every target on this one. The only complaint is that the Jabberwock got so few lines (dammit, you've got CHRISTOPHER FUCKING LEE as the Jabberwock, use him!

Effects: Definately the crown jewel of the film, everything's being cheerfully eccentric. (Though I didn't like the design of the Jabberwork, too dragon-like. I actually thought he would be furry like the Bandersnatch for some reason.)

In summary, again, not Burton's best, yet still entertaining.
  # comments: 4
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A dissapointingly unremarkable waste of potential.
Yep, that title more or less sums up my feelings. I deliberately use the word 'unremarkable', of course, since the film certainly wasn't bad, and definitely had its merits: chief among them, the CGI work was great (although the whole 3D thing smelled rather strongly of bandwagon, IMHO), the environments were often breathtakingly dreamlike, and most of the character designs (Mad Hatter and Red Queen coming to mind) were absolutely wonderful. Certainly, they exemplify the remarkableness that could have been.

Unfortunately, such merits found themselves overshadowed by disappointing flaws - first and foremost of which was the plot.

If, like me, you're a fan of the Alice books, this one will probably be a no-brainer to you: I shouldn't have to talk about a plot at all. That was the whole schtick of the Carroll's books - to try and tie their events together would have been to smother the bizzarness that gave them their charm.

By contrast, this movie didn't just have a plot; it had a boring plot. Alice is The Chosen One, and has to find a speshul sword and hack up the Jabberwocky, a once enigmatic, shapeless creature that's now been reduced to an incredibly generic dragon-thingy? That's it? Come on, Mr Burton, I've read B-Grade fanfictions with more intriguing plots than that!

And then there's the acting. Now, of course, when it comes to the likes of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, it doesn't matter what script they're thrown into, they'll always be able to make their awesomeness shine through, because they're simply amazing actors. This film was no different. Unfortunately, despite this, both Helena and Johnny find themselves nudged off camera far too often in favour of the lead actress, who is...I don't know, I suppose things would have gotten Narmy if she'd been overly emotional, but honestly, this woman was like a robot. There's a massive gap between the properness that Alice fought to maintain in the books and...this.

Plus, I'm not sure what they were going for when they told Johnny to randomly switch accents between lines, but even he couldn't make it work.

So I'll just end on this note: this was an adaptation of a remarkable book, by a remarkable director, featuring remarkable actors; how in God's name did it ever manage to be so incredibly unremarkable?
  # comments: 8
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Definitely not for Alice lovers
If you were looking for an Alice in Wonderland adaptation with an original story that was actually faithful to the books, stay far away from this. Many people think Tim Burton's films are unique, bizarre, strange. In my opinion, they are not. Tim Burton is pretty mainstream as far as I'm concerned. He's really just there to comfort normal people who want to think they're "different". I mean, he made this for Disney. DISNEY! So, despite what the fangirls would have you believe, this isn't a darker, more adult take on the books. In fact, it makes the 1951 animated version quite tolerable in comparison. In fact, I LIKE that film thanks to Burton's.

But enough boring ranting. So, the whole idea of this film is that Alice is now 19 but doesn't fit in with Victorian society (and that's never been done before, eh?). Apparently, they wanted to make Alice a feminist in this. What? How can they think Alice wasn't a strong female character in this? Burton's actually said he found Alice in the books too passive and that he wanted to punch her out. I don't know what he was reading, but it definitely wasn't Carroll's book. Alice in the books was a much stronger character than the one in the film could ever be. So, after running away from someone who proposes to her but she doesn't want to marry, she falls down a hole and enters Wonderland. Then she's told that she's the Chosen One and has to defeat the Jabberwock, whose name they get wrong. The "Chosen One" plot has been done so many times it just isn't funny. Are they even trying to be original? Anyway, Alice is convinced it's all a dream, until she remembers it isn't and has a flashback- which happens to be the ONLY GOOD SCENE IN THE ENTIRE MOVIE. Then lots of boring adventure stuff happens, Alice faces the Jabberwock and the Red Queen is defeated. The plot was so boring I've practically forgotten it already.

Anyway, the worst part is definitely the characters. Who are nothing like in the books. Why is the Hatter a good guy? How could they possibly manage to confuse the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen? Would it have killed them to put the White Knight in? Why do they all have stupid names? Burton tried to make the characters more complex, which didn't work. This story isn't faithful to the books. Instead it is a pastiche of previous Lewis Carroll fanon. Don't watch it. EVER!
  # comments: 9
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Pretty On the Surface But That's About It.
As a warning, there will be spoilers in this.

At first glance Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland isn't a bad film. It had quite a lot of good elements with stunning visuals, superstar casting, and a director that is known for making good movies. Unfortunately there's a lot left to be desired with this film as well.

First I'll start with the plot. Somehow we've lost the delightful nonsense of Alice in Wonderland and we've turned it into a cliched Chosen One story. Alice has run away from her almost fiance and stumbled into Wonderland once again, only now she's the only one able to defeat an unkillable dragon and free the kingdom from tyranny. Any tension about whether or not Alice can really do this is lost immediately with the introduction of the Oraculum, an illustrated calendar that shows something happen everyday of Wonderland, which says that Alice will kill the Jabberwocky, whether she wants to or not. And the rest of the plot tells us all that You Cant Fight Fate when everything that Alice does leads her that much closer to her destiny. After defeating the Jabberwocky and returning home, Alice cleans up lose ends and runs off to expand her father's business (or bring Opium to China depending on your view.) The story just seems cliche and the writing feels lazy.

I do have to say that the acting is pretty good. Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp are as good as they ever are and they bring the characters of the Mad Hatter and Red Queen to life and make them real and sympathetic. Mia Wasikowska tends to have dull surprise as her main emotion, but she does have the justification of Alice thinking everything is all a dream for most of the movie. The voice acting is very nice as well.

The visuals are very nice. As per usual, Tim Burton there is quite a lot of Scenery Porn. The CG is smooth and the 3D is alright, if a bit bandwagony. Personally I miss the old Burton style of using puppets and claymation, but the art changes with the times, I guess.

I can't say that I dislike this movie, but I don't really like it either. It really is pretty average, but that could probably be blamed on lazy writing.
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