The Lewis Carroll parts are terrific and the sets and effects mind boggling

Rating: Null/10 (18 August 2011)

Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Tim Burton is a genius of mise-en-scene, of inventing new worlds and of remembering the joy of innocent imagination. All of that is here, in a movie he directs but based on the so well known and so amazing stories about Alice (Though the Looking Glass, and In Wonderland). The sets and colors and changing realities are amazing stuff, all on their own. If you marvel at the language, that's Lewis Carroll, and it's marvelous. And Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are both superb (Carter surpasses superb, actually) in their leading roles in Wonderland.
You can't go wrong here. It has endless details that make you gasp or laugh or just stare in wonder. It looks good, it has twists of logic, and it's cleverer than clever has a right to be.
There's a feeling sometimes (as with many Burton films) that the effects are the point, and the story gets slightly swamped. And the most main character of all, beyond the writer of course, is Alice herself, played by little known Australian actress Mia Wasikowska (her mother is Polish). Wasikowska is pretty, sweet, and frankly a little dull. In a way this is logical, because she's being swept along and events happen to her, not because of her. Still, she's the star, and I wanted to feel more than curious about her. There is also an action-adventure aspect to this all that seems to pander to the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (or "Harry Potter"?) sentiment. The good vs. evil battling is at odds with the fanciful rest of it (and not part of the author'
This becomes unbearable by the huge battle scenes which are generic crap, really, and then there is an amazingly odd ending, back in reality, with talk of good old Imperial Britain going at it again. I suppose it is in theory the 19th Century still, but in fact the movie is not, and nor is its audience.
Luckily there is so much else going on all of this hardly matters. Just watching, and watching more, and being in a state of wonder, is quite enough. It's a tour-de-force, a work of originality like you're rarely going to see, as I suppose "The Wizard of Oz" must have seemed when it first came out. (Along those lines, imagine if Alice in this film was as charming and sympathetic as Judy Garland.) But really, don't wait, watch this film. It's eye-opening.