Alice In Wonderland: 6/10

Rating: 6/10 (9 December 2010)

Tim Burton is a dignitary among contemporary directors, but I have never been his devoted fan, my favorite Burton's film is Edward Scissorhands (1990) (Sleepy Hollow comes next). Also I have a little grudge over his last film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), as I find it meaningless besides its theatrical performances and gloomy settings or maybe I am just simply fed up with Gothicism.
Frankly speaking, this film is only a mediocre work from Burton, the imaginary wonderland is Burtonesque but the story is witless, which evolves in a quite prosaic way without highlights or excitements. However the fun is still achievable especially I think the newcomer Mia Wasikowska's novelty is pervasive all over the film, which is adorable and eliminates lots of sleepiness. Helena Bonham Carter as the evil Red Queen and Anne Hathaway as the White Queen are both skin-deep characters but fully bring forth the vividness. Johnny Depp is as crazy as usual as the mad hatter, but not particularly remarkable. Surprisingly I am very much impressed by the voice of Alan Rickman as Absolem, the mighty caterpillar, which is truly mesmerizing.
This 3D feature won a huge success in the worldwide box office (collected more than 1 billion US dollars) as it followed the 3D upsurge just after Avatar earlier this year, however I become somewhat worried about Burton's next project as it seems that his fame is forestalling his talent to reach his maximal level, owing to a fact that Burton has never been nominated as Best Director in Oscars, which might hint us that in some level Tim Burton and Michael Bay belong to the same category, more like a skillful film craftsman than a genuine auteur.