A MUST for Burton Fans

Rating: 9/10 (5 March 2010)

Today, Director Tim Burton's latest film Alice Wonderland was released to audiences around the globe. I was fortunate enough to secure tickets to the opening midnight showing in Imax 3D with Jessica, Danny, and Brandon. Now, as a huge fan (no reference to my size or eating habits) I went in with exceedingly high expectations, and I'm pleased to report that all expectations were met! Tim Burton has once again brought to like a whole new world, filled with amazing creations and visuals. He's managed to take the novel, which had no real sense of plot, direction, or characterization, and develop it into a full fledged story with incredible fleshed out characters. I was completely entranced not only by the visuals, but my the story and characters themselves. The sets, though all cgi, were beautiful, and really captured the surrealistic feelings the novel contained. Now, this film is not a remake of the classic novel or cartoon Disney film, and is instead a continuation of Alice's struggle to grow up and be comfortable with herself. The parallels between the realm of Underland and her 'reality' are contrasted beautifully, both through characters, scenery, and dialouge. The designs were marvelous, really capturing the dark absurdity that is 'wonderland'. Its rare to witness a film that takes you so far into the story, that when it ends you have to take that moment to recollect yourself into reality again, and that's precisely how I felt when the credits started rolling.
In my opinion, I enjoyed this film much more then Cameron's Avatar. Where Avatar was visually marvelous, Burton manages to create an equally stunning world, while maintaining an original plot and characters. The casting as well was incredible, and each actor brought more to the film.
Out of five stars, I rate about a 4-4.5. I could go on for hours about the plot, characters, and well, everything...but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone! I'm open for discussion for any who have seen the film though. I hope this review was helpful to those unsure of going to see it. I highly recommend it.
I highly recommend seeing this film in theaters, to fully capture the visuals and even the wonderful score by composer Danny Elfman. I look foreward to seeing it again and again when it is released on DVD.