Burton delivers Burton but no real "heart" in his Alice in Wonderland.

Rating: 7/10 (7 March 2010)

While Tim Burton can always promise his unique sense of style and aesthetic in every cinematic endeavor he undertakes, he rarely produces work that has real "heart". Such is the case for his version of Alice in Wonderland. Where the movie really succeeds is in it's rich costuming and set dressing as well as stellar performances by Burton's real-life wife, Helena Bonham Carter who plays the large headed Red Queen as well as Mia Wasikowska who plays Alice. The film's character design closely mimics the creepy illustrations (which are in alignment with Burton's creepy sensibility) from Lewis Carrol's original publishing of the book done by John Tenniel. I'm typically a huge Johnny Depp fan but just like his performance in the recent Charlie & the Chocolate factory, I think he missed the mark with this overcooked (<--speaking of his look) and underdone (<--speaking of his acting choices) character. Most of the other characters fell flat and Crispin Glover (Back to the Future & Beowulf) was just as creepy as he is in almost every role he's ever played. As far as special effects and CG, I suspected my recent viewing of Avatar would colored my view of this movie and I indeed found the "Phantom Menace" CG sets too unreal and "video-game-like" to suspend my belief. Also, I think that the choice to make the film 3D was more of a marketing afterthought (my assumption is based on the fact that all the 3D was done in post-production) and ironically most of it fell flat for me literally speaking. I would not recommend this movie to kids under 12 based on some of the more gruesome (although not really graphic) visuals having to do with beheading and the like. Having ripped the movie a new one, I don't hesitate to recommend adding this to your Netflix queue. There were some great scenes and moments throughout that I really did enjoy and the storyline is much closer to the original books than the original Disney cartoon was. However, don't expect the same warm fuzzy feeling that other movies under the Disney name have given audiences throughout the years. If you're a Tim Burton fan I recommend seeing it at the IMAX in 3D, otherwise I'd wait 12 weeks for the DVD release.