Sunday, March 07, 2010

Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" - A Review

We saw the latest "Alice in Wonderland" yesterday, in full 3D.

Let me get right to the point. I can't make up my mind if I like the movie, or not. This makes it very strange because I typically know right off the bat after I walk out that I like the movie or not. I definitely wanted to like this movie a lot. There's a lot to like. It's visually stunning, as expected. There's so much to see on the screen, which means the need for repeated viewing when it comes out on Blu-Ray/DVD. There's plenty of fascinating characters on the screen. I love the Cheshire Cat. The Mad Hatter is rather disturbing, which probably was the intention.

But there are parts of the movie that just didn't work for me. That final battle scene - I could pluck that from any fantasy movie. In fact, it is similar to the final scene in "Enchanted", which is ironic because "Enchanted" purposely tried to mimic the "fairytale/fantasy" genre. And when the Mad Hatter did his final dance, well that just almost destroyed the movie for me because it looked so much out of place!

Of course, the main focus of the movie is the performance of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. It was quite commendable and he created a very unique character. Still, I think Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen stole the show! She was hysterically wonderful and should be a major Disney villain from now on.

So in the end, I don't know if I like this movie. I would definitely recommend it so that you can have an interesting experience at the theater. Maybe I was expecting way too much, as I had afraid of. Maybe I might change my mind after another viewing....

Zz.

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