A great idea misguided

Rating: 5/10 (24 March 2010)

Alice (Wasikowska) flees an important party and chases a rabbit down a rabbit hole where she emerges in Wonderland, where she witnesses many strange things.
The build up to this film's release at the beginning of March was that Tim Burton was still perfecting it and Odeon was refusing to screen it because of the too quick to DVD release date. So far from perfect media vibe, the film was to no surprise big at the box office but has shared various attitudes of like and dislikes.
Based on Lewis Carroll's novels, Alice in Wonderland has never been tackled to its true potential according to visionary director Tim Burton. So taking that in mind, this is by far a more darker and more personally involved story of imagination and forced reality to many other depictions, particularly Disney's in the 1950's.
Opening with a young Alice having a bad dream and her father conversing with colleagues there is a more formal attitude to proceedings and when the film shunts forward many years to a surprise engagement party there is a feeling of, dare I say, convention and boredom, usually not present in a Burton film.
When however the white rabbit emerges there is hope and when Alice takes her tumble down the hole we can foresee Burton's dark side starting to emerge. Sadly, what is to follow feels a bit normal and nothing unique for the director.
The "eat me" and "drink me" sequence doesn't possess that magic the Disney film generated so easily, with a bored looking Wasikowska growing and shrinking and when things start to click and the door opens, there is too heavy hyperbole on darkness.
Burton of course has had a career spun from putting a dark spin on light ideas and events. Edward Scissorhands and Nightmare before Christmas spring to mind and applying that idea to Carroll's book, already dark with imagination seemed a sure winner. But there is too much detail and an attempt to justify fan's requirements for darkness rather than the story's own portrayal.
Of course this new wave of 3D hype gives the film an experimental feel and though I saw the 2D version, it would be hard to imagine how different it would be otherwise. The effects are outstanding, no question, but the use of them for the story's context feels heavy and indecent.
This is further established through the red queen's head, the ridiculous dormouse and the oddball styling of the Tweedles.
However the film does contain numerous spurts of enjoyment. Depp, as per usual, is visionary of his character, the final battle sequence is well staged and Anne Hathaway gives a gorgeous wispy gentle sweep to the white queen.
Whilst there are moments of technological stage brilliance there is no balance with the story's too heavy script with too many ideas and imaginations and is a case of a great idea misguided.