Visually Wonderful/Dumb Story

Rating: 6/10 (11 June 2010)

Once again, someone takes a timeless story, with wonderful characters and a really cool plot and sells it out for a predictable, silly, action film, where the Mad Hatter becomes a love interest. Come on! The film begins with an amazing world created with great care. The images are almost startling in their lushness and complexity. So what happens. You take the Alice in Wonderland canon and take all the starch right out of it. Johnny Depp is great to look at, with his colors and his aberrant behavior. At some point, it all falls apart. A war between the white and red witches takes center stage. It is made obvious that Alice must fulfill her destiny by killing the Jabberwock. She begins to ally herself with benevolent forces. The queen who is visually interesting but really boring begins the "off with her head" stuff. Anyway, by the time the thing was over, I just didn't care. I'm a firm believe in story and this one doesn't have an original bone in its body. How sad. And I really enjoy most of Tim Burton's output.