Down...and down...and down...the rabbit-hole

Rating: 5/10 (21 March 2010)

It seemed like a no-brainer: the eccentric, visionary genius of Tim Burton ("Ed Wood," "Sweeney Todd") paired with the eccentric, surreal literary work of Lewis Carroll seemed a recipe for something that could be nothing less than mind-blowing, especially when the literary work in question is something as beloved and resonant in popular culture as "Alice in Wonderland." It's a shame the reality portends a less-than-flattering cinematic experience. What really happened here is anyone's guess: Burton, after floating on a career high in the wake of "Big Fish," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," and "Sweeney Todd" (one of his best films), transformed a world-renowned tale into something so bombastic and scattershot that it often feels like a mega-budget Terry Gilliam movie. "Alice in Wonderland" really owes more to the broadness of "Mars Attacks!" than the controlled maturity of Burton's recent works. The film is stuffed with eccentric characters, but barely a single relative emotion; the dialog, delivered in English accents by frequently hyperactive actors, borders on the incomprehensible. As Burton's long-reliable muse, Johnny Depp has essayed many memorable roles under his direction, but as the Mad Hatter, delivers a lisping performance so wildly over-the-top that it barely registers (his clown makeup and red fright wig doesn't help matters). And despite the film's much-hyped use of 3D, that aspect comes off as curiously pedestrian, with very few scenes that take full advantage of the effect (or perhaps it's a case of bad timing: in the wake of the fantastically immersive world of "Avatar," everything else looks like child's play by comparison), resulting in a visual experience that lets the viewer down almost as much as the flatly-rendered narrative. By the end, my frustrated mind could only wonder, without answer, where "Alice in Wonderland" really went wrong.