Not particularly enjoyable, but I can respect what they accomplished.

Rating: 5/10 (29 December 2010)

I've gotta admit up front that I am not a huge Johnny Depp fan and frankly think I've seen enough of him for some time. Now I am not saying he isn't talented—he certainly is. But so often his films have 'mega-hit' written all over them and the public throngs to his films like lemmings—and I just think I've seen enough. So why did I finally get around to watching "Alice in Wonderland"? Well, I am currently on a Disney Cruise and the ship is equipped with an amazing 3-D theaterand this film just happened to be playing. And, given that my family is exhausted after a day of exploring Martinique, I thought I'd take in this film. After all, even a bad 3-D film could be a nice diversionespecially when I have to pay nothing extra to see it.
Well, after seeing this film I am a bit stumped. On one hand, I didn't particularly enjoy the film—it has a particularly joyless thing—not at all fun to watch. But on the other, I can't just discount the good things about the film. Despite the plot doing almost nothing for me, I at least enjoyed the following: The 3-D will sneak up on you. Much of the early portion of the film (in the normal world) could have just as easily been done in traditional 2-D, once things got moving in Neverland the 3-D was lovely—and very immersive.
The music was very nice. There must be a law that says that in addition to Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp, Danny Elfman MUST write music for every Tim Burton epic. The music was great and well done.
I enjoyed seeing and hearing some old favorites. The voices of some were recognizable—such as Christopher Lee as the Jaberwock, but Michael Gough (who appeared in lots of old Hammer films and must be 134 years-old) and Stephen Fry provided their voices as well. While Crispen Glover has had a very mercurial career, here he is rather mainstream (like he was in the "Back to the Future" films) and it's nice to see him again. Matt Lucas was lovely in a non-"Little Britain" role as well. Plus who cannot enjoy Alan Rickman's wonderfully disdainful voice?!
Now to provide equal time, here is what I didn't like:
Alice in the real world was one giant anachronism. Women did not act like her.ever. The ending in particular was very politically correct and timelybut not for the mid-19th century. As a result of this and the way her character was generally written, she was really impossible to like or care for in any way—she was simply a caricature. And, speaking of caricatures, what was up with Depp's Mad Hatter?! Break dancing?! Bizarre makeup that looked way too whacked out and bizarre for a Rocky Horror reunion?! Plus, like Alice, he seemed to have nothing in the way of personality—he was just goofy .
As for the story, as I said above, it was joyless. Too dark, too intense, too violent and way too gross---all the fun of the Red Queen from the cartoon was replaced by a homicidal maniac and heads being lopped aplenty. For a kids' film, this was surprisingly gloomy and un-fun. ThereI think I hit on the BIG problem.the movie simply was not fun to watch. Spectacular and cool, but rarely fun.