Very disappointing

Rating: Null/10 (14 March 2010)

I was really looking forward to this. The trailer looked amazing and Burton seemed just the right man to bring something new (and his amazing visual style) to a well known story... And yet, I found myself suffering from the "Hook" effect during the whole film. First all of, the 3D (which generally I really love) brought absolutely nothing to the film. In fact it of all rather distracting and annoying. It's interesting that I thought it felt almost an added on gimmick and only today I found out that it was indeed decided after most of the film had already been filmed. Johnny Depp does his usual weird, mad character, which by now we are all become a bit sick of. The design of the whole "wonderland" becomes a bit monotonous and boring after about 20 minutes. And even some of the special effects look pretty bad (next to some really stunning ones too, I have to admit). But worst of all it the story. First of all, why bother with this sort of "sequel" idea? What is really the point of the whole Alice has now grown? Does it really matter that she had been there before? And why is she so keep in saving the Mad Hatter? And what about that rabbit? Who is he working for? What's his role in all this? And (big spoiler here... watch out) what's point of all that going to China at the end? What a mess! And finally the music score: yes, it could have been good, if only they had work out where to use it, as opposed to ending up having music throughout the whole film, thus diminishing the effect that music should have. Overblown is the word that comes to mind. I wonder what this film could have been like if maybe Tim Burton had made it, without Disney behind his shoulders.