Alice in the Palace

Rating: 7/10 (5 March 2010)

It's definitely one of the more commercially marketable Tim Burton movies, which may be a result of doing it with Disney. But there are a few little drawbacks for me. I like Mia Wasikowska as Alice in general, but there are a few times when she didn't seem to be emoting quite enough. She seems to act out the gravity of her situation well enough, in general, but, for instance, in the scene where she finds the small door and keeps getting big and small until she can get through the door, it simply felt like she was doing the actions because the script told her to. I may have been expecting too much, but it seemed like she was just going through the steps.
Also, the 3D aspect feels a bit inconsistent. At times, there are some nicely impressive shots, but at other times it doesn't seem all that different from a 2D film. I had heard that Tim Burton shot the film with a standard camera and then had the footage processed into 3D (sort of like what they did with the Nightmare Before Christmas 3D) so that may have made me more critical when I watched it and maybe I'm being a bit too harsh, but there it is.
Other than those issues, the visual aspect of the movie is actually quite creative, inventive, ... um ... made-up-I've, and ... Tim-Burton-I've. Don't expect the original Alice story. (Either one, since many people are content to forget that the Tweedles are actually from "Through the Looking-Glass", not "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland".) Tim Burton has restructured the story since he felt--and rightly so--that Alice's stories are more a series of short encounters rather than one overarching story. The restructured story now ties it all into one meaningful adventure, and I think it works quite well.
On the whole, not my favorite Burton, but it's a good movie and I feel comfortable recommending it. (Though unless you feel you really have to see it in 3D, you should probably save your money and see the 2D version as it doesn't really take full advantage of the possibilities of the 3D format.)