Alice back in Wonderland, but not entirely wonderful

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2010)

Tim Burton films guarantee you 2 things: 1. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are likely to be found in the cast list. 2. There will be a Gothic undertone to it.
But for me also Burton has this tendency to be a bit hit or miss. And Alice in Wonderland sort of falls between the two this time around
*Warning, minor spoilers ahead*
Firstly, although the 3d was a nice extra there really was no need for the 3d. OK, this could be the argument for any film now in 3d, but unlike say Avatar this film really did not blend it in seamlessly. There were moments where it felt like the 3d enhanced a scene, like when the hat was thrown, etc. But in general felt far more gimmicky than some films using it have.
Visually the mood and the setting was brilliant, it was supposed to be a dying Underland and it felt like just that. The CGI of the scenes could be argued to be too cartoony, but this is a dream like world and that idea of being so far detached from our reality that Alice never at any time believes it to be anything but a dream.
Keeping with the CGI the characters who were heavily created by this medium were also very crisp and believable, even the almost putty like tweedle Dee and tweedle dumb. The level of CGI characters also helped with the use of varying sizing of characters throughout the film.
On the sizing front I personally thought this was a feather in the cap to subtlety with an extraordinarily difficult thing to do in film. The argument again could be it was almost showing off, but at no time was there a size issue with Alice that didn't make sense, and as such it worked nicely.
The characters in the main worked too, with Alice being a very solid character playing the dazed and yet independent lead. Depp is Depp, its almost like he is ad libbing his role and the rest of the script is written around it, but I really cannot fault his portrayal of the Hatter. The March Hare was comedy gold for me, as this is meant to hold some juvenility to it being a child's story. The Red queen was an impression of Queeny from Blackadder II but this was fitting to her attitude and mannerisms. The white queen was almost parody in itself with the deliberate stance she took continually of this pure and graceful person. Even the Knave of Hearts had value to the flow of the tale
And now to the said story itself. It was nicely woven as a nod to elements of what it was supposed to be a sequel of, but somehow it was almost like the premise outweighed the plot line they had decided apon. It was like Burton and the writers had thought 'what a wonderful idea, bringing Alice back to Wonderland now I suppose we need a point to her return big dragon to slay? Yeah, that'll do, lets get some lunch.'
My apologies for the negativity, but I did feel like I was more interested in each individual character (Fry's Cheshire cat was the best of the bunch for me, and Rickman as the Blue Caterpillar? A masterstroke!) than the final scene. But of course when I criticise the plot thread I try to think of what might have worked better, and alas I really couldn't think of anything beyond maybe this novice fighter Alice showing that courage by standing up to the bully of the Red Queen, which may have felt more honest as a finish, but would have never been as epic as a final scene as the Jabberwocky's involvement. I did also find the last part back in reality to be very much a 'lets wrap this up guys, we have a plane to catch!' sort of speed But ultimately more necessary than just ending it without it, so I cannot really write a better conclusion
So all in all, the film was slid but really the premise was on a higher plain than the plots spine, and as such it suffers a little in the rating from me.