I just got back from seeing Alice in Wonderland and some of you may not like what I have to say. Gorgeous: absolutely. Fun: definitely. Worth seeing: yes. Great film: well, no.
The film is an adventure quest in the vein of Labyrinth and Never Ending Story. I watched both of those films countless times as a child and sometimes now when I need to cheer up. I have no doubt that if I had seen this new Alice in Wonderland as a ten year old I would have been obsessed with it. But I felt a little too grown up for the black and white (okay red and white) world of good v. evil and the idea that everything would be alright if Alice just believed in herself. Somehow, making Alice more of a grown up has made the film a bit too juvenile.
Here’s my issue. Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland is a mastercraft of surreality. Most film adaptations are unsuccessful because the book is too episodic and thematic. Burton and crew evaded this problem by creating an adventure plot, but it was too linear. This is kind of an ironic criticism, but for once a Burton film was not absurd enough.
The level of the film which is most successful is the visuals, no surprise given Burton’s artistic background. But sometimes the visuals zoom by too quickly while we’re following Alice run from one location to the next. It’s like scarfing down a hot fudge sundae instead of lingering bite by bite.
Alice was great. She was absolutely the right actress for the part and I’d love to see more from her in the future. (Did anyone else think she looks Exactly like Gwyneth Paltrow?)
Johnny Depp was not so great. You should know I love Johnny. Two of my three favorite films of all time are Johnny vehicles (Pirates otc and Sweeney Todd) and I would probably see him in a two hour movie called man sitting still in chair. But he didn’t bring anything to the Mad Hatter. He was gasp, boring even.
My favorite characters were the Cheshire Cat, whose appearing and disappearing were executed marvelously, and the Caterpillar voiced by Alan Rickman (Snape!) I also enjoyed Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. I left the film wanting more of these mainly digital creations and less of the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen’s Knave and the White Queen. I also enjoyed the Red Queen’s court with all of their deceptive deformities. I thought that was a nice nod to the things aren’t always what they seem upper classes.
A final note, I opted not to see the film in 3D. I don’t like 3D. It makes me nauseous and I wish they’d stop using it. I realize this may not be a popular opinion, but I do not think the film lost anything visually in the 2D format.
These are just my first impressions. It’s possible that when I’ve had time to reflect on the film I’ll develop a better (or possibly worse) impression of it. I plan to find out more about the Art Direction and Digital techniques and cover those next week. What were your thoughts on the film? I’d be very curious to know…
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I saw the film today. I liked it.
And actually, I liked Johnny’s interpretation of the Hatter. Good combination for me of whimsy with just a shade of darkness. I REALLY liked Helena Bonham Carter–probably my favorite performance by her in film. I liked all the actors. The story and the layout held my interest.
What I didn’t like so much was the visual style. I saw it in 3D Digital, and I was disappointed by it, actually. I thought they were designing too many scenes in Wonderland to show off the 3D effect, and it looked very artificial and over-the-top to me. I know, fantasy and all, but I found the 3D effects distracting, like the old 1950s films where they’d deliberately thrust something towards the camera to make everyone in the audience gasp. I think they have to work on making 3D flow more naturally through the film so viewers are not so aware of it all the time.
Since I’m not so familiar with the Lewis Carroll books, I didn’t mind the linear plot so much. The only plot element I disliked was the last two minutes, a totally BS, PC ending, as far as I’m concerned, but it really didn’t detract from the film. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tim Burton filmed a much darker alternate ending which we’ll get to see on the DVD.
I agree with you 100%. Was it a visual knockout? Absolutely to die for…plotwise though they lost some of the original Alice magic’s, I think if they had done a straight adaptation they’d probably done a better job than just trying to patch some sketchy adventure
Didn’t quite get why Johny started talking with an Irish accent towards the end and The White Queen looked like she had a broom up her arse, she was always so stiff…
But it was still a fun movie and I wouldn’t mind watching it again!
I just wanted to add this comment which was submitted under an older post “Alice in Wonderland Licensed Gear” by “alice in wonderland site.” I think it fits better with these comments reviewing the film. (Submitted on 2010/03/06 at 2:39pm)
“Adding a little bit of a background story and a few more characters to Alice’s adventures didn’t do as much as i thought it would for the story. Truthfully i wanted to love this movie, I’m a huge Tim Burton/ Johnny Depp fan. But this just didn’t do it for me. I came out of the theater wondering if it were just the mediocre script or the director who had failed to meet my expectations. The best part of this movie is probably Johnny Depps portrayal of the mad hatter who truly is mad. However, Mia Wasikowska presents Alice in a dull manner that had me checking my watch every ten or fifteen minutes. Overall this film isn’t awful, but at the same time its no masterpiece, for an interesting film to look at I suppose this would be an alright choice, however if you want a great story and compelling acting, you might want to check out something else, because this isn’t the movie you’re looking for.”
I too liked the film quite a bit but as noted above, my favorites were the non-human parts- the caterpillar, the cat and most especially the Tweedles. I loved the Red Queen as well though I agree that it was not the most difficult bit of acting to yell off with their heads at the appropriate times but then that is Carroll’s Red Queen really. I could have done without the 3D- not a fan generally and it does nothing for Burton’s brilliant visualizations anyway. No one is mentioning the March Hare or the Door Mouse but they were good as well. The Jabberwalky was terrible- not scary- not a Jabber walky in the Carroll sense. Just to Disneyfied I suppose. Like Sleeping Beauty’s scene where Millificent turns into a creature and is slain. So could I watch the movie again- sure – but I am more likely to watch Nightmare or Beetlejuice which I can not spell instead.
Yeah, pretty much had the same reaction.
If anyone could capture the schizophrenic magic of the story, I would have thought it would be Burton. And 2nd what Barbara said, the Jabberwalkey was lame.
Other than the good versus evil storyline, the Jabberwalkey was the weakest part of the movie I think. I think Tim Burton should have a do over without the Disney influence and see what happens.