Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Directed by Tim Burton, Alice in Wonderland is a fantasy follow-up to Lewis Carroll’s well known classic tale. Alice is now older, and is dead certain that her previous trip into the rabbit hole was nothing but a dream. So much, that even after days in Wonderland, she believes that she is still in a dream and imagining everything. But yet pinching herself isn’t going to help her escape from this imaginary land, which is counting down to Frabbulous Day, a day in which good and evil in Wonderland will meet in a final battle, in which the apex is supposed to consist of Alice killing the mighty Jabberwocky. But Alice is convinced that they’ve got the wrong Alice, as does most of Wonderland, and is convinced that slaying such a monster is an impossible feat. This, however, is when the Mad-Hatter comes into play.
The Mad-Hatter, played by Johnny Depp, is one of the last characters introduced into the film. Having developed an affection for Alice the last time she visited and had tea, he knows in his heart that this is indeed the correct Alice. The Mad-Hatter has changed from last time, though, and so has much of Wonderland. It has been since taken over by the Red Queen, which much of the previous kingdom burned down by the Jabberwocky. And now, with the clock ticking down to the time of the Frabbulous Day, everybody is getting nervous and scared, afraid that they will not have their champion to take down the Jabberwocky. What follows is a series of events that leads up to a Narnia-like finale that seems very rushed and feels like they could have added 5-10 minutes to let things play out naturally.
As you are watching this, you know that it’s made by Tim Burton. Everything in the movie is so creative and just out of this world that only Burton would be able to come up with such a dreamy environment and creative costumes. And while the visuals are quite beautiful, you can’t help but think that “its pretty, but not quite as believable as Avatar”. People weren’t kidding when they said Cameron set ahead graphic-design by two years. This is not to say that Burton did a horrible job, but it just makes the wonderful job that Avatar did all that more apparent. The visuals are creative, but most of it was to push the family-orientated value of the film. The color schemes of both sides of the spectrum are well done though, with everything red being painted the a fiery red. On the other hand, everything around White Queen (Anne Hathaway) being very bright with the color purity and innocence.
The casting for the most part was well done. Helena Bonham Carter is a Burton usual (she is his wife, after all), and she is arguably the best part about this film as the Red Queen and delivers most of the laughs that you get from this film. Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat is amazing as well, absolutely stealing the movie whenever he is on the screen. Johnny Depp is so-so as the Mad-Hatter. If it wasn’t for Burton directing this, Depp’s involvement in this film would seem like typecasting at it’s finest. He overdoes it at time, but much like the visuals, the performance is used to entertain the younger audience. Alan Rickman is pitch-perfect for the wise Blue Caterpillar, but doesn’t receive much screen time. Mia Wasikowska was pretty decent as the title character. Surprisingly, the script really didn’t ask much of Wasikowska, so I’m not sure how one could really grade her on this film. She did well enough for what she was asked to do, but didn’t really deliver anything that would make you think twice about her performance. It’s rare that you see a titular character get such a bland and limited role. I think if the script would’ve called for a more meaty role, the film would’ve been much more effective.
While this movie is very creative and a visual spectacle, you can’t help but get over the fact that this is directed towards a much younger crowd. It’s entertaining, and should be a real treat in 3-D, but a rather shallow script prevents this movie from being the true enjoyment for all audiences that it should be.
B-
Notes: 108 minutes in length, Rated PG for fantasy action/violence involving scary images and situations, and for a smoking caterpillar.
13 Comments
I’m so happy Helena stole the show. I love that woman. I am Burton fan so I’ll probably like this a bit more than you. On the other hand, I wrote my review of Shutter Island…I did like it but didn’t LOVE it. But I wasn’t disappointed.
I knew that this movie could have a great box office success (as we’ve seen this weekend) because I had in mind the complex, consistent and expensive media campaign they were leading for almost a year before the movie got into theaters, but this still is a bit surprising (more than $100 million in just three days). I think it’s all because of that adorable Cheshire Cat
PP
Looked like a match made from heaven with Burton and this material, but sadly these two just weren’t on the same page. Thats the problem with Hollywood sometimes these days.
Sounds like I should lower my expectations a little.
It is rated PG which should let us know it isn’t going to be dark like Sleepy Hollow or Sweeney Todd.
I’m still saving my 3D refund tickets and am going to try this weekend.
I only had the slightest hint that it was a Tim Burton film, while the world is fantastic, it’s the opposite of his usual dark and creepy tone.
I think it’s unfair to compare the visuals to Avatar though. Wonderland should not be a place where everything is believable. It’s an over the top world where flowers have faces and I thought the visuals suited the film very well. After watching a behind the scenes spot on the film I was even more impressed with almost everything being CG when I hadn’t thought that originally.
The 3D was also an afterthought wasn’t it Will? While every shot in Avatar was created with the idea of being a 3D film in mind?
I’ll definitely have to check this out. Great write-up as always!
Thanks everybody for the comments. I’m usually a big Burton fan, but like Heather said, that PG rating kinda held back that movie. Can I really argue against it since it made $116 million in the first weekend and is actually a decent movie in the viewpoint of it’s main demograph(children).
And I’m not saying the visuals were bad at all. I loved them. They just paled in comparison to what the Avatar made everything appear.
It’s interesting, this is really the first “neutral” blogspher review I’ve read of it – apparently critics are split down the middle on it, but most bloggers I’ve been reading have been fairly critical of it (myself included).
I just felt it wasn’t really Alice In Wonderland, but “Disney wants to make Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia haven’t really kicked off as they would have liked” with the whole destiny angle thing.
I do reckon that I might be kinder to it on the rewatch (like I was with Public Enemies) as my expectations are somewhat more contained.
I can’t get over the fact that Burton is simply rehashing his old material over and over and finally this film is the ‘victim’.
I’m with you … “Alice” deserves a solid “B” rating. The film has a lot of flaws, but it’s such a visual pleasure that I can’t hate it. Plus, I really, really LOVED Anne Hathaway’s White Queen, Stephen Fry’s Cheshire Cat and Helena Bonham Carter’s Red Queen. These three characters, if you ask me, deserved far more screen time than The Mad Hatter. Much as I like Johnny Depp, he didn’t impress me here.
Hmm… A “B-”. I wouldn’t go that far. I didn’t like the movie that much. I didn’t hate it, but it was okay. Nothing more, nothing less.
I went to the movie house alone.. I find myself laughing.., but the script I guess was not good enough.. I was looking for something that would be more fascinating and worth-remebering… Hmm, Alice at first, was not good at playing her role but then as the movie goes on, you’ll realize that she deserves the role..All in all the movie was good.. I like the effects and the characters especially the red queen and mad-hatter. Te costumes are definitely beautiful especially the one worn by Alice when she went to the red queen’s palace.
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