Unimaginative and Boring

Rating: 4/10 (20 March 2010)

3D movies appear to be dominating a certain corner of the cinematic market as of late, and that's fine, but the 2010 "version" of Alice in Wonderland is anything but a standout effort in 3D visual effects.
The most interesting scene in the movie comes right at the beginning when we meet her father, a mildly eccentric but genius inventor who inspires Alice to think for herself later in life and allow for the possibility of magic and wonder even when she's supposed to be a proper lady of sorts. The problem is: that's all we see of young Alice and the promising father character. Why tease us with that and then go with something completely different?
The 3D effects were virtually not even there. If you frequent 3D movies, you'll barely even notice it after awhile, except for the rabbit hole scene which was great, but again- why couldn't we get MORE of that? Instead, the fight scenes barely utilize the 'action coming at you' quality that 3D fans want. I hate to harp on this, but really it's stunning how little the glasses and the 3D effects mean, especially in the second half of the movie when it was plugged so heavily for this feature. It feels almost like a bait and switch.
The acting, for the most part, is atrocious. You barely understand what the red queen says half of the time. Anne Hathaway's mannerisms as the white queen were ridiculous. She never puts her arms down. That seems like a small thing to pick on but watch it again if you didn't notice this. Her arms hang at shoulder level in every scene, and she walks around with a delirious, sleepy expression on her face. She's bad. Fans of the traditional Depp will not like the mad hatter. Very little of his personality comes out in this. He's featured on all of the posters and he's mostly background. Coming to this movie expecting to see Depp is as big of a ripoff as expecting to see 3D. It doesn't happen!
The most fun moments in the movie, for me, were the entirely computer generated characters. The highlight of the movie is that these voice actors did an outstanding job. It's just a shame that they were supporting an awful Carter and Hathaway performance and a weak Depp role. The only 'real person' worth mentioning is Crispin Glover, who had a pretty one dimensional role as a sinister, ambitious steward but he held his own and had a couple of good moments.
This paragraph is reserved for Alice. You can drop the ball on the Mad Hatter and still have a compelling story, but what you CAN'T do is drop the ball on the hatter AND Alice. The parts for these two were written horribly. The only difference is Depp has the talent to save it into mediocrity, but THIS girl couldn't do ANYTHING with her part. The main character has to BE the main character eventually; she can't go about just receiving the action from everyone else, and then all of a sudden at the end we're supposed to be able to believe she can beat a dragon. Action/Adventure movies don't work like that!
I'm not saying she should have been trained up for a half hour of the movie like Rocky Balboa getting ready to take on the Russian, but she CAN'T just pick up a sword and be the champion of the white queen, for God's sakes! The scenes of adult Alice leading up to and following her new adventure in wonderland are excruciating. They will make you absolutely beg to be taken to wonderland. Either way, the actress seems to have a very difficult time *reacting* to what's going on around her instead of simply saying the lines. You can't say it was because she thought she was in a dream the whole time- about halfway in, she realizes she's actually in a magical kingdom and she'd better beat this dragon to save everybody, but the cold, stiff delivery that lets you know she can't really see all the computerized imagery around her to react to it remains.
Overall, it wasn't a bad movie, but a boring one. The choices made from the scenery to the effects (for the most part) to the acting were just basic. Any director or someone with a knowledge of acting will say that the first choice is usually the least interesting, and that's what we have here- a movie of obvious choices that misses the mark of wowing us in any way.