cricketbat
So much time is spent on the bizarre in Alice and Wonderland that it loses an emotional connection with the audience. Tim Burton does a fantastic job of creating an otherworldly feel and memorable characters, but the story seems like it's missing something. Still, it's fun to watch.
rowanmaillot
I have been a Tim Burton fan for 5 years so believe me when I tell you this. In my 5 years of being a Tim Burton fan I have seen every single Tim Burton film ever! Starting from Pee Wee's Big Adventure all they way to Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, watching them all my favourite used to be Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (it is literally a visual feast!) But now that I have seen this movie over and over again I think it is better. Johnny Depp's role as Mad Hatter and Helena Bonham Carter's role as the Red Queen towered over all of the others' performances. This movie is the meaning of a visual feast! It is the most fun Tim Burton film. I would definitely recommend watching this movie if you have never seen it.
slightlymad22
Continuing my plan to watch every Johnny Depp movie in order, I come Alice In Wonderland. I was put off watching this movie, as I never liked the book, and then I saw Depp's look and I decided it was not for me. Following the financial success of the Pirate movies and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, I was starting to suspect, every movie maker and studio head were giving Depp carte Blanche and he was running amok, seeing how far he could push things before he was reigned in. So last night was my first viewing of the movie.I was wrong about this movie. Burton delivers a charming, brillian interpretation until a silly ending almost ruins everything that came before it. Burton is a brilliant visual artist, and his film is a pleasure to look at. (I wish I'd seen it in 3-D at the fine a nkw)Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway and Matt Lucas are all human or human-ish versions of themselves and are instantly recognisable. There is voice work from Stephen Fry, Christopher Lee, Bsrbabra Windsot and rounding out the Sweeney Todd reunion with Burton, Depp and Bonham Carrer is Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall. I was totally wrong about Depp too. He is a rare actor who can treat the most bizarre characters with perfect gravity. Whoever he plays (Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd, Captain Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, Ichabod Crane), he is that character through and through. I've mentioned his expressive eyes before, they are used to full effect here. Now on to the bad. The final act disappointed me why did it need an action sequence at the end?? We've seen every possihle battle sequence, every duel, all the showdowns and all the too long fights to the death.Why does Alice in Wonderland have to end with an action sequence?? Did the executives think audiences would be disappointed without one?? It seems totally out of place and out of tone.with the rest of the movie. Thankfully it was not enough to totally spoil my enjoyment of it. Alice In Wonderland grossed $334 million at the domestic box office to end the year the 2nd highest grossing movie of 2010. Beating the first Despicable Me and Iron Man, Twilight, Harry Potter and Shrek sequels. Only Toy Story 3 grossed more.
mark.waltz
The trouble with many of the spectaculars today is that you can't tell if the actors are real, made up to look freakish, or some cartoon with just a voice attached. Modern computer generated special effects were a novelty when they were first making these, but now it's an attraction that often seems closer to "Ice Age" than real live action. Subtle use of this form of special effects made many of Tim Burton's earlier works, but I had a hard time really becoming engaged in this "Alice in Wonderland", feeling I had fallen into the rabbit hole myself and o.d.'d on a dinosaur size order of magic mushrooms.With many famous faces (obviously many of them Burton regulars), this is going to be artistically beautiful to look at, but difficult to become totally engaged with. First of all, you've got an overaged Alice (Mia Wasikowska) who seems like a college student playing dress up, a slam towards Lewis J. Carroll's conception of the lost little girl.The performances of the characters of wonderland are basically extended cameos. Helena Bonham Carter tries for camp and ends up a screeching shrew whose Stewie Griffin like head I wanted to see explode. Johnny Depp, for once, seems to be just an amalgamation of every Burton character he's played, not a bad thing, but basically a performance that he basically texts in. It's nice to look at like a fancy drawing at a museum but after five minutes, it's time to move on.
AD
