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All of the fans of the Disney classic “Alice in Wonderland 3D” animated film, along with die-hard Johnny Depp fans are going to be disappointed, if not already, when they see Tim Burton’s adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland.”
The film is basically a live-action Alice in Wonderland II. However, that is not what was bad about the movie.
There have been many attempts at reviving an old franchise, or giving a franchise a fresh face, most of which have failed in a fiery blaze of hair, patchouli and skunk.
I wouldn’t quite put this movie in that echelon, but it’s close.
Before going to the movie, I was apprehensive but hopeful because I usually enjoy Tim Burton joints.
Burton is normally imaginative and creates aesthetically pleasing sets. I’m also personally attached to older movies like “Beetle Juice” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
However, my apprehension stemmed from the last Burton flick I caught on DVD, “9,” which didn’t sit well with me shelling out nearly $3 for and for Alice I would have to spend more than triple what I spent on “9.”
Quick summary: 13 years after the first trip down the rabbit hole, Alice falls down again after leaving a suitor waiting and is quickly deemed a predestined savior of Wonderland (Underland).
The problems with the plot come quick and furious. First Alice doesn’t remember originally going down the rabbit hole, even though the movie begins with her talking to her father about the dream of going down the hole the first time.
Add to that Alice telling her mother she has the same dream over and over—without elaborating about the dream—and apparently it’s not about Wonderland; just some BS dream that doesn’t affect the movie at all. Except for the fact that the whole time you expect her to know where she is and the people she is talking to since she brought up the dream two hours before coming to Wonderland.
The plot also is extremely formulaic and hackneyed. It’s one of those movies you know what is going to happen before it happens because you have seen it 100 times before.
Although the plot is poor, the movie does have some redeeming qualities. Namely the movie lived up to the bar Avatar set with computer-generated images (CGI).
The entire movie is extremely aesthetically pleasing in Burton’s normal twisted view on life, even though many of the things on screen are CGI.
Another even more surprising thing I noticed in the movie was that CGI characters’ reflections were shown in windows and pools of water that were not the main focus of the scene. That means a lot to me because I am a detail-oriented person and like to see a thought completed as opposed to left half finished.
However, if the thing I remember most about a movie is that a group of card knights’ reflection was in a pond, then the movie probably wasn’t worth the $11.
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