Alice in Wonderland (’10 review)

3 out of 5

Tim Burton is one of the most dynamic visual filmmakers around and his latest outing, a semi-sequel of sorts to the classic tale Alice In Wonderland (even though it shares the same title…confused yet?) certainly has some pizzazz. Sometimes it’s so overdone it degenerates into a lot of noise and CGI fury, but it has moments of cinematic joy. It doesn’t exactly feel like Alice in Wonderland, especially the climatic battle swiped from Lord of the Rings.  Does anyone remember the part in the original story when Alice dressed up in armour and went toe to toe with a Dragon?  Not I.

Years after her first adventure, Alice (Mia Wasikowska) once again follows the white rabbit down to Wonderland.   In the magical land, the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) has taken over from the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) and the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) is planning a revolution against the Red Queen’s tyranny.  It turns out Alice is some sort of chosen one (you know, another one of those movies) who has to vanquish a dragon in order to free everyone.  As you can see it doesn’t follow the format of the original story, aside from a series of unfortunate events in Wonderland.  The movie especially drags when Alice ends up in the Red Queen’s castle and nothing much happens aside from showing off more production design.

Depp is very weird as the Mad Hatter, and he is one of the most entertaining things about the film, but Depp’s weird for the sake of weird schtick is honestly starting to feel a bit tried.  However, he still manages to make it enjoyable, like when he suddenly drops into an Irish or Scottish or whatever accent.  It’s like things are suddenly really serious when Depp starts talking in a different voice.  Since he’s the Mad Hatter, he also runs around with a computer animated March Hare (voiced by Paul Whitehouse), but the March Hare is just kind of annoying and throws stuff, even if he does get in a good gag when he waves around a spoon, looks at it, and says, as if hypnotized, “Spppppoon”. 

Annoying and throwing stuff pretty much characterizes Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, plus she’s always shouting “Off with their heads!” But even if the character is repetitive and sometimes too bombastic, Bonham Carter once in awhile manages to get in a good laugh and the digital enlarging of her head looks cool.  Hathaway does practically a parody of a perfect princess – she keeps her hands perpetually raised like a beauty queen or a Barbie doll – which you’ll either find funny or distracting.  As what usually happens to Alice in any version of the story, Wasikowska just looks confused.  Actresses pull off being confused as the plot jerks you around, Allison Lohman did a great job doing that in Drag Me to Hell, but Wasikowska doesn’t add much oomph.  She has a scene halfway through the movie where she complains about all the insane stuff that has happened to her in Wonderland and she just seems mildly flustered.

Even if the dragon-enhanced climatic duel may seem a bit random, it actually plays strongly.  First of all, the design of the dragon wonderfully creepy and really intricate; it doesn’t look exactly like a dragon that we know in popular culture, but close enough.   Second of all, the thing actually talks and Christopher “Count Dooku/Lord Saurman” Lee’s voice comes out of it!  Sure, it’s only for like 30 seconds and it’s only two lines but it’s still Christopher Lee, whose voice can make anything 100% more menacing.  Third of all, this is the big moment in the film where Alice actually does something proactive. This may run contrary to the original spirit of the book but protagonists in films should do stuff! This scene also features some of the best work from Wasikowska when she starts to recite impossible things that happened to her as she fends off the dragon.  It’s a big hero moment for her that may seem bizarre for purists but it’s when the flick has the most energy. 

The 3D in Wonderland impressive and it compliments the film’s dream-like feel, but it isn’t Avatar-level impressive.  This may have to be because Alicewas shot traditionally and then converted to 3D, while in Avatar James Cameron built a 3D camera system from the ground up.  Not to say the film is ugly, far from it, it looks really cool.  Yet Burton doesn’t seem to understand like Cameron did to combat the darkness of 3D glasses the screen needs to be really bright (hence why in Avatar everything is practically glowing).   But there’s still a lot of visual stuff to admire, from the wacky design of the characters and the way that any high-speed chase scene actually is propelled by 3D. 

Alice in Wonderland inventive but sometimes irritating.  Johnny Depp yelling gobbledegook can only get you so far.  However, it is neat to make the film a semi-sequel to Wonderland, even if it isn’t true to the spirit of the original novel at all.  Burton can do better but even his misfires are compelling.