Alice in Wonderland review

Cast: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Wasikowska
Dir: Tim Burton
Duration: 109 Minutes


Alice in Wonderland is a reasonably enjoyable flick with some dazzling images, great mix of CGI and live action, and it features a very convincing performance from Mia Wasikowska who plays Alice in the film.

The movie is not without its problems, however. The story takes place with Alice, now a young adult, who finds herself back in this magical world with some ol' familiar friends who need her to stop the Red Queen who has brought a reign of terror to Wonderland. And by reign of terror, I mean, she's an irritable bitch with a very large head who screams "Off with their heads!" every five seconds. This would be fine if Helena Bonham Carter was at all convincing, unfortunately, she mails in a very irritating performance as the Red Queen.

The Red Queen has stolen the crown from the White Queen, who is played by the usually lovely Anne Hathaway. But the White Queen's character is so flat and unmemorable in this movie that it makes for a pretty anti-climactic moment when she finally wins the crown back.

The film also features the usual cast of talking animals that is what makes the story of Alice in Wonderland so mysterious, enjoyable, and charming. And yeah, there are quite a few charming characters here, especially the Chesire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry).

The Mad Hatter is played by Johnny Deep, who isn't really that mad at all in the movie. In fact, the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland takes more of a heroic turn in the story as he swordfights (!) his way towards freedom. The Mad Hatter, really, is just slightly weird. Sometimes he has a lisp, sometimes he speaks in a Scottish accent, sometimes he doesn't do either. He also does a really horrible dance toward the end of the film which is so putrid and awful that it almost ruins the film completely (to make it worse, Alice repeats the same dance later on in the movie). But Tim Burton has to understand that just because you've dressed up the Mad Hatter in ridiculous clothes and gave him a lot of hideous makeup, it doesn't make the character 'crazy.' The character should act as crazy as he looks, but he doesn't.

In fact, I'd say the majority of characters in the movie are moreso used as talking, moving props than being real characters at all. There is no wonder, no imagination, no mysteriousness in the characters. They are simply a little weird. "Animals do NOT talk," Alice assures herself toward the end of the movie as she tries to name six impossible things before she slays the jabberwocky. I don't blame Alice if that's all she sees in the animals because aside from the Cheshire Cat, the animals in this version of Alice do not have much of a personality at all.

And look, it's ok that Alice is sent to "Underland" to slay the jabberwocky and save the world, but the mere fact that she spends the majority of the film refusing to believe she can do it is just stupid. Why does it take her the whole film to realize she's been there before? By the time she realizes it's "all real," everyone in the audience is so far ahead of her that it's really not that big of a revelation when it happens. There really was no point in making Alice not remember anything and it made the film a lot longer than it should be. It's part of the reason why you don't really get to know many of the characters.

But, you know what? Overall, Alice in Wonderland is still pretty enjoyable. It's definitely watchable and once again, it's very beautiful to look at. I had the misfortune of seeing it in 3D, and I am positive that if I saw it in 2D, I would have enjoyed it much more. It just looked brighter and more beautiful in 2D (when I took the glasses off... there are some scenes which do not appear to utilize 3D at all). Since the 3D took away from the visual beauty of Alice in Wonderland, it highlighted a lot of the problems for me. I'm hoping to catch Alice in 2D at some point in the future. Maybe then I'll like it even more. But until that happens, I'd have to say that Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland was a nice, mildly enjoyable, visually-striking film. Seeing it in 2D, you could probably enjoy Alice for what it is. But because I saw it in 3D, its flaws were all too clear to me. The fact that I still found it pretty enjoyable makes me wanna see it in 2D and re-evaluate it. Until then... it is what it is.

Rating: 6 out 10

Warning: do NOT see Alice in Wonderland in 3D!