Wonderland Becomes A Battlefield and Alice Loses.

Rating: 3/10 (27 February 2013)

While there many things to like in this film, what starts out as an imaginative and whimsical Trip to Wonderland becomes a tribute to the noisy wonders of CGI, a female empowerment film coupled with far too much Dungeons and Dragons action, a film that seemed designed for 13 year old boys with revenge on their mind. On the positive side, there is much to cherish--the sense of Cheshire Cat nuttiness was perfect, his textures breathtaking, the grin a nice combination of slightly fiendish and very friendly. The Mad Tea Party is zany and wildly inane just as author Carroll would wish, with Depp's Mad Hatter both unsettling and sometimes comforting--so far so good. I thought Anne Hathaway, too, captured an assurance that this was indeed fairy-tale in telling--but the film shortly evolves as just another battle movie, another Transformers spin-off, another noisy us vs. them, the same sort we experience in the media on the daily basis; the original Alice was an uneasy mix of wonderment and unease, a Victorians take on strange human behavior and logic gone wild, but there is nothing in the book to indicate that strange little Alice would put on armor and slay a dragon; one wonders if this is to lay groundwork for a video game to follow. And just for the record--Helena Bonham Carter needs some elocution lessons--half of what she said was lost in speed and attitude. For some this film might be worth watching once--and then return with joy to Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood or Frankenweenie for your best Tim Burton Fix.