A Botched Combo of Oz and Lord of the Rings...

Rating: 6/10 (29 March 2010)

This is a visually seductive movie which seems to be on the verge of becoming intriguing up until the terrible moment it devolves into a fantasy action film, at which point its connection to the whimsy and strangeness of the novel severs entirely. The second portion of the film is difficult to enjoy for anyone who appreciates the linguistic torsions of the novel, and that book's celebration of a level-headed child resisting the madness of adult social rules and vile tempers. The film's ending, in which Alice "grows up" and embarks upon a business career (in an imperialistic trading company of all things!) is even more profoundly errant. I don't know – maybe the tale is inherently difficult to capture well in film, or perhaps its age has passed, and become crushed by capital into just another venture. Yet, the "flashback" scene (where we see Burton's take on the original Mad Tea Party episode) seems to me to have been a shadow of a missed opportunity. Burton's usual oddity and comic/Gothic sensibility appears to have deserted him precisely at the moment it was most called upon. And the reduction of that supreme insane, the Mad Hatter, into as sort of stand-in for Baum's scarecrow is particularly sad. No amount of 3-D technology can salvage a story so horribly mangled. And - regretfully - at points there are sets and visuals very redolent of the Disney cartoon, which (as this is a Disney film) suggests an undue interference by the "product's" owners. Worth viewing, for its many visual surprises, and for the odd performance here and there (Helen Bonham Carter strikes me as especially fun in her raging role). But not a great success of mood or sensibility.