Alice In Wonderland Review

It puzzles me that it took Tim Burton so long to finally create his stylized rendition of “Alice in Wonderland.” Ever since I could recognize his hand in direction I always thought to myself “Man, it would be so cool if he made 'Alice in Wonderland.'” Honestly, one could go as far to say that Lewis Carrol's novel and Burton were born for each other, destine to have their lives intertwine. It may surprise you then that Burton's vision for Carrol's novel is, well it's pretty crappy. It has awkward pacing, gives us little time to identify with the characters but most of all it manages to make the experience boring. I know, I found it hard to believe as well. Hearing this one may be inclined to ask “So what went wrong?” Many things. First off was Burton's vision for the film. Previous silver screen adaptations of Carrol's novel were more or less none narrative, estranged adventures that had little or no purpose beyond giving lots of strange stuff to look at and go “Well that's weird.” Quite surprisingly, Burton was never impressed by these creative oddities, saying that they were just strange, narrative-less , emotionally empty joy-rides. So what did he do to correct this? He attempted the arguably impossible, to give “Alice in Wonderland” a narrative. Now, I am all for narratives, in fact I believe every great film needs at least a good narrative, however I don't think that was the best trajectory for Wonderland. See, on its own as a strange, fun-filled adventure Wonderland excelled, but when we constrain it to narrative it means removing much of the unnecessary strangeness that made it so lovable. Needless to say, that is exactly what Burton did. The final result is an unprecedentedly boring, fast paced, story with a lazy narrative.

Burton's recreation of “Alice in Wonderland” follows the story not of the young girl Alice, but rather twenty year old Alice. Being a young woman, as well as part of aristocracy, she is expected to marry a lord. Needless to say, when she is confronted by her suitor she flees, all these decisions she is expected to make is just much for her. Noticing a rabbit in a dinner-jacket hopping scuttling along side her in the bushes she chases after it till it leads to its rabbit hole. She falls in and thus begins her-not-so-fantastical adventure.

Burton's “Alice In Wonderland” isn't a completely worthless venture, just that it does no play to its strong suits. Like previous adaptations it has a variety of strange, interesting characters, places, and events that all add up into something of value. However, Burton mutilates any and all cool portions of the story either making them to parallel with people in Alice's life or simply keeping their strangeness to a minimum. I suppose if the film gave us more time with people in Alice's actual life the whole narrative idea could have played out a bit better, but it doesn't. Rather, it tries to get to Wonderland as fast as possible, perhaps it was confused as to what it wanted to be. Either way, it does not attempt to push itself in any single direction a very thoroughly, making it feel very muddled and cheap.

However, while it may lack continuity and consistency in the arrangement of its parts, the pieces nevertheless add up to give us a beautiful aesthetic gem. From cinematography, to its color pallet this is a drop dead gorgeous film. If you are simply looking for something to star at and go “Well that's pretty” for two hours then this will be well worth your ten dollars. Like JamesCameron's “Avatar” its 3-D doesn't try to pop out at you and hurt your optical senses, rather it is subtle and complimenting to the beautiful world that is Wonderland.

Depp is yet another one of the few positive aspects of this film. Making great use of his character creation ability he gives us a truly mad, “Mad Hatter.” Depending on his mood his accent will change from lispy, whimsical British to angry Scottish making him a very enjoyable whenever he is on screen. Due to Depp's trademark style of acting it is hard for one to decide whether his performances are nomination worthy or simply over-the-top, for this one I really can't tell, though I would like to believe the first. A subtle blend of CGI and contact lenses make up his great bulbous, uneven eyes, further complimenting the character's insanity.

Burton certainly had an interesting idea for “Alice In Wonderland” sadly it didn't pay off. Due to hapless direction and lazy story and plot-devices the film comes out a bland, CGI filled Tim Burton mishap.