Alice in Wonderland Review
by Homer Yen (homeryen88 AT gmail DOT com)March 20th, 2010
"Alice in Wonderland" - Through the 3d Looking Glass
by Homer Yen
(c) 2010
It's a whole new world out there. I can't begin to imagine the technology or the work or the imaginative powers that go into melding CGI, live-action, and 3-d effects the way that film's are doing nowadays. The juggernaut that is "Avatar" has shown that movie-going audiences are embracing this next-generation form of entertainment. And, the added ticket price certainly doesn't do anything to turn away people, even in this financially-strapped decade that has just begun. While interest in "Avatar" is fading (I mean, with $730 mil of box office receipts, who HASN'T seen it yet?), the baton of 3d entertainment is ready to be passed on to a successor. And, "Alice in Wonderland" carries that baton confidently forward.
Even if people haven't read the semi-eerie children's tale, most people have heard bits and pieces of it. Tim Burton's version updates it nicely. Alice (played by Mia Wasikowska) enters Wonderland as a girl in her late teens and not the 1st grader that readers are familiar with. And, this works to the audience's advantage because Alice's role in Wonderland is to fulfill a prophecy by restoring peace and balance. It's too heavy a responsibility for a 6 year old, especially considering that there will be a final confrontation with a dragonlike creature. However, even without having read the book, I would think that the author didn't envision an all-out confrontation between the forces of the evil Red Queen's camp and the forces of the peaceful White Queen's camp. Eh...that's Hollywood for you.
With this film, there are people involved here certainly at the top of their game. Tim Burton has created a bizarrely beautiful world that is suited to more adult-like tastes. While it sometimes suffers from the inherent 3d dimness, the renderings are visually sumptuous, from the evil queen's castle to the chessboard-like battlefield to the barren forests. If you go to see movies as an escape, then this one, like "Avatar," is the right ticket.
Meanwhile, the film introduces us to over-exaggerated characters that seem more appropriate in a child's nightmare rather than a fairy tale. Their appearances are distinctive and strikingly grotesque. Among them, Tweedledee and Tweedledum (voiced by Matt Lucas), look like a distant cousin to Humpty Dumpty. Johnny Depp turns in a very good performance as The Mad Hatter. No matter how eccentric Depp's roles are, he performs them with such amazing gravity that he is always fun to watch. But it's Helena Bonham Carter that really steals the show. As the bulbous-headed Red Queen, she is a hilarious, self-serving tart. Oh, and I should say that it was an inspired casting choice to have Crispin Glover as her right-hand-man, the Knave of Hearts. Tim Burton's unique fingerprints on this project are as evident as the Queens forehead.
The characters are rich enough. The story is interesting enough. And, it gets better as it goes along. While the film is not as engrossing as the superior "Pan's Labyrinth", this film certainly comes across as a far more creative and well-acted and less-cluttered cousin to the "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe." I'm not so excited that I'm going to dance the Futterwacken, but I left the theatre completely satisfied.
Grade: B+
S: 0 out of 3
L: 0 out of 3
V: 1 out of 3
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