Saturday, March 20, 2010

Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Director: Tim Burton. Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, Michael Gough, Christopher Lee. 108 min. Rated PG. Fantasy.

Never a fan of Lewis Carroll's 1865 story - but knowing the genius Burton is, I was hoping he would transform it into something enchanting. I was wrong. A more teenage-attracting 19-year-old Alice and an epic action-packed LOTR-style plot loses steam midway, and Johnny Depp (who is always good), repeating the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory persona, is not able to save the day either. The art direction is unquestionably top-notch, but I found myself yawning during the second half, waiting for the movie to end. Never thought I'd give a Tim Burton film a bad score.

Mo says:

2 comments:

  1. Although I’m fan of Berton’s works and followed the story till the end , I quite agree that It was predicted much more. The unique characteristic of his work is : creation of totally fantastic atmosphere and a dream-like world along with some deep meanings and concepts told behind of all of this fantasia. But in this movie I failed to figure out this point. I mean I didn’t get any serious item to make me think or fluctuate my feeling or in another word impress me considerably as well as his other works that I loved very much. But there is no doubt , the make up, visual effects, animation and innocent face of Alice and especially bizarre make up of Johnny Deep( I prefer his character would have been worked better) still seems interesting.

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  2. I think there's a very fine line between fantasy, and the absurd. Apparently "Alice in Wonderland" (the book) is a self-admitted practice in "nonsense" - but if that is the case, any attempt at a cinematic version would fail, because you can't hold up a story based on nonsense. The mandatory battle scenes at the end were probably to compensate for this basic defect of the story.

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