Enough beauty and strangeness to compensate for a missing storyline

Rating: Null/10 (5 March 2010)

I went to the theater to see this movie in 3D with no expectations other than to be at least mildly entertained for its duration and to enjoy the effect of having teacups thrown at my face. I'm pleased to say that my expectations were exactly on par with what the movie provided. The movie's beginning scene had me doubting whether or not the ticket was worth the gap in my wallet however. Alice finds herself in a situation that I'm fairly sure hundreds of other heroines have also had to work there way out of...that of the uppity aristocratic arranged marriage. In this scene we are introduced to Alice's various relatives including the sadly, easily forgettable Aunt Imogen who could have had all the makings of deep and interesting character but was written off cheaply as more of a crazy cat lady and less of a estranged spinster with motives, past, and a reflective relationship with Alice. This is especially true based on the concept which is essentially the core concept of the movie, that the most interesting people are also insane.
It's a painfully typical situation. A young girl with an unusually independent mind finds herself suffocating in the thin air of pompousness and propriety. She shows all the signs of being a free thinker but somehow is not able to make major decisions for herself. As soon as she takes the plunge down the rabbit hole however it's a totally different movie. She is immediately introduced to some of the primary denizens of the Anti-Red Queen Wonderland population and just as rapidly ripped apart from them. The question that's repeated again and again is "is this the real Alice?" forcing Alice to make efforts to consider that herself more and more as the film progresses but only in a very minor way.
The behaviorisms of Alice were a much needed departure from the typical fluffy whimsy of fantasy protagonists. She comes off as a much stronger character than simply running around awe struck for the entirety of the movie which was what I had come to expect from this genre. She believes that she is in a dream and ultimately has complete control although her environment works to prove her theory wrong every in nearly every scene. Her mild reactions may seem out of place but make sense in the larger picture. Not only is Alice following along a set prophetic course but she is also reinventing portions of a dream she's already had. Things in wonderland are therefore less surprising as they are merely curious.
Another performance to note was oddly enough Anne Hathaway's. I'm not a Hathaway fan but this performance gave me much more respect for her acting chops. She is exquisitely graceful like you might expect from a White Queen but manages to juxtapose nearly sickening sweetness with a strangeness that forces you to question her motives along the way. Even her gracefulness is displayed in such a manner as to question its authenticity. Johnny Depp's portrayal of the Mad Hatter was everything I had hoped it wouldn't be. Basically a random amalgamation of Braveheart and Jack Sparrow. He does manage to make the character childlike and awkward in one scene and just as easily menacing and foreign in another which in certain scenes became slightly annoying but in others had a very powerful affect depending on the atmosphere. Essentially this character fell somewhere between not crazy enough and confusingly strange which for the most part felt a little unsatisfying.
The movie trots along at a decent pace with some eerie elements along the way such as floating heads in the moat surrounding the Red Queen's castle. Helena Bohnam does an exceptional job as the Red Queen and manages to make a self centered psychopath into a sympathetic character every now and again which helps to alleviate some of the static from Alice's character non-progression. She works excellently as Hathaway's opposite. Both Queen's leave you wondering if they really are as good or as evil as they are trying to make you believe. The ending is everything you can assume it will be and nothing more. Overall I don't regret seeing it although it is worth mentioning that the 3D effect probably weren't really worth the three extra dollars I paid. If I do watch this again in the future I'll be happy to enjoy the gorgeous visuals in HD and won't greatly miss the overall ineffectual 3D attempt.