Review: Alice in Wonderland
Release Date: March 5, 2010
Rating: PG – should have been PG-13 – Violence, disturbing images and smoking
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Michael Sheen and Alan Rickman
Director: Tim Burton
Official Website – Disney
Loosely Based on the novels by Lewis Carroll
Screenplay by: Linda Woolverton
I, and probably every other geeky Tim Burton fan, had huge expectations for the new Alice adaptation in 3-D so I set out yesterday to see it in IMAX. I drove for four hours to get there and back so that I could really experience it in the best way. The story of Alice and wonderland isn’t exactly my personal favorite classic fairy tale but I figured that no one else would ever be able to imagine it the way Burton would so it couldn’t be missed.
Unfortunately for me the entire day I chose to drive to the theater pretty much was the suck from the very beginning. Somehow I came down with a cold that morning and tripped to fall on my face twice in the shopping center parking lot that the theater was located in just while trying to get to lunch. Then as if that wasn’t enough in the theater there were all kinds of crappy situations going on that definitely ensured that I wouldn’t be visiting that theater again. (see my review of the theater on Yelp) But all those shenanigans aside when I finally sat down to see the movie I tried to be as optimistic as possible. Unfortunately again for me, that was for naught.
The story was pretty much where Alice had returned to wonderland after 13 years of being away just in time to avoid a crappy arranged marriage and hopefully save wonderland from the tyranny of the Red Queen (played by Helena Bonham Carter sporting a unusually large noggin). Wonderland is not quite as it was, as if she could remember it anyway, with destruction and the torture of all the kooky creatures of the place. Johnny Depp shows up as the somewhat disturbing looking Mad Hatter and Anne Hathaway waltzed her way through the role of the White Queen who was overthrown by the large melloned Red Queen. The story progressed predictably to the inevitable battle at the end and takes a surprise twist after that with Alice changing her life forever (and in ways that were totally unrealistic for the time period btw).
As you’ve probably already surmised from my previous comments I was underwhelmed and unimpressed with Alice in Wonderland overall. My main problems with it were pretty simple since I really thought the writing was incredibly boring and sadly predictable even for being based on a story that most of us already know. I felt like everyone pretty much involved on the film did a lack-luster job making it nothing like it should have been. As much as I am negatively biased against Lewis Carroll as a person I can’t help but admit that his story itself is very creative and should have given plenty of movie material by itself not including the special effects, all star cast and Tim Burton name. But somehow it got screwed up along the way.
Even Johnny Depps usual ability to bring comedy and fun to a movie like this couldn’t save it not to mention I was a little weirded out by the suggested romantic connection between the Mad Hatter and Alice. That was a little too reminiscent of what Lewis Carrol was famous for to me – being a creepy older guy. I have not read the books so I don’t have any commentary on how similar the film was to the original material but I have read other reviews saying it had little to nothing in common with the novels. – It didn’t even have that going for it.
Bottom Line: DISAPPOINTING IN THE WORST WAY – AND PROBABLY MOST EXPENSIVE TOO
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