Uneven but Wonderful Burtonian Fare

Rating: 7/10 (5 March 2010)

It was difficult for me to decide upon a rating for this. After hotly anticipating Alice in Wonderland since July of 2009 when the first trailer came out, March 5th of 2010 finally came and I got to see it. Alice in Wonderland is quite different than most of the other editions of the Alice story and also one of the better ones, yet it is far from perfect. One might expect more from Burton, but all in all the film is satisfying. The 3-D is not quite as good as the 3-D in other films, but it is still quite nice. The film is mostly held up by strong performances and good art design, but brought down by an incredibly uneven script. It was difficult, but I finally arrived at the decision that Alice is in fact a good movie.
Alice in Wonderland has been changed slightly for this edition. The film is a semi-sequel to Alice in Wonderland with a few elements of Through the Looking Glass incorporated. The story follows Alice Kingsley, beautifully played by Mia Wasikowska (try pronouncing that one correctly!), after she has been proposed to by a man she is not in love with. Alice is nineteen here and is now returning to Wonderland...make that Underland. In Underland she meets the usual cast of characters including the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), the Cheshire Cat, Absalom/the Caterpillar (Alan Rickman), Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb, and the Jabberwocky. A few new characters even join the now familiar crew.
As I mentioned before, the film's quality is sustained by good performances and an excellent art department combined with special effects. Mia Wasikowska, who you may recognize as Sophie from In Treatment (probably not though), gives another great performance. Can someone explain why this is not household name yet? I surprisingly enjoyed Johnny Depp's performance very much as well. Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway act nicely as well. And now for the art department. The sets, which there are very few because most everything is CGI, are quite nice. The costume design is elaborate and accurate for the time period.
Now let's talk about what was just so-so in the movie. The script is definitely what has caused some people to hate this movie. At the beginning, the script is very weak and slow moving, but eventually it speeds up. Unfortunately, it takes about an hour to do so. Also, Tim Burton does the exact same thing he does every time: dark, Hot Topic-esquire film-making. I'm sorry, but since when has doing the same thing every time meant being a great director? The film includes his favorite actors in pretty much the same parts. Isn't the Mad Hatter just a bit too similar to Willy Wonka? Of course, what Tim Burton does is enjoyable, but isn't it all a little too much already? Alice in Wonderland is not an easy film to explain. It's both great and so-so. Tim Burton has definitely put his magic touch on certain parts and the actors try very hard, but the film lacks a consistent script. I want to like it more, but I just can't. The 3-D provides some physical depth to the movie, but the movie lacks metaphorical depth.