Friday, April 02, 2010

Alice In Wonderland


We all know the story, now Tim Burton has given his dark and quite out there version of Alice In Wonderland and it is exactly what you'd expect from him - dark and out there.
Despite my earlier post complaining about the 3D prices I have wanted to see the film for a while so ended up going anyway. However, I did take my own 3D glasses which I had, happily, kept from seeing Avatar.
Burton's Alice is a 19-year-old girl who is about to be forced into a marriage she doesn't want - until she spots the White Rabbit and follows him into the woods and eventually down a hole.
Once in Wonderland, which is apparently actually called Underland but Alice (Mia Wasikowska) when she was a child at her first visit had given it her own name.
The characters are all there - Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Tee, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare and of course Johnny Depp's demented Mad Hatter. There's also the wonderful Alan Rickman as the Blue Caterpillar - seriously, Rickman is marvellous as always despite the smallness of the role.
The Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) is wonderfully wacky and has a very short fuse. I have to admit to loving every time she screamed 'off with their head!'
Far less animated is the White Queen (Anne Hathaway who again proves herself a weak link).
Given all the hype surrounding Alice In Wonderland, expectations were high. I have to surmise that on that score it was a shade disappointing. However, it was still a worthy attempt. I think Burton just tried a bit too hard to give the classic tales (both Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass) too much of the Burton-weirdness.
It was an enjoyable movie, brilliant at times, but overall left me feeling that he could have made an absolute corker of a film, but didn't. The 3D was well used but I get the sense that it doesn't really matter whether you see it in the enhanced version or not.
Next time, maybe, Tim. A 7 out of 10.

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