Downtrodden, consistently bungled adaptation...though Bonham Carter makes a delicious Red Queen

Rating: 5/10 (15 July 2011)

Thirteen years after falling down the rabbit hole and encountering a feast of frenzied creatures, a troubled young woman in Victorian England makes the same journey after following the same White Rabbit--but she doesn't remember what lies in store for her. Lewis Carroll's books "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" are once again fancifully realized on film, however Linda Woolverton's screenplay--with the regrettable emphasis placed upon Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter--is haphazardly lumped together. Mia Wasikowska's Alice doesn't recognize anyone in Wonderland/Underland, but we have already heard her describe the characters she has seen in her recurring dreams. Worse, the irascible Red Queen had just about torched everything which surrounds her castle, giving Wonderland a post-apocalyptic look which is visually depressing. Depp's Mad Hatter is turned into a modern variation of Ray Bolger's Scarecrow from "The Wizard Of Oz"--complete with a sentimental attachment to Alice--however Helena Bonham Carter's bulbous-headed Red Queen is a masterful achievement of character acting (she steals the film). Tim Burton directed, but, while his playfully twisted sense of humor is in evidence, he has no feelings for Alice, nor many of the famous Carroll eccentrics she encounters. There's a fatigued sense of storytelling at play here; the grand production, ornate and expensive, begins to seem overbaked, while the final tag--Alice leading a trade expedition to China!--is certainly not in keeping with Carroll's creation. ** from ****