Release Date – 3/5/2010
Alice Kingsley is an odd girl that comes from wealthy parents. She is about to be forced into a marriage that she doesn’t agree with. While at an engagement party that she wasn’t even aware of, she sees an little white rabbit wearing a jacket and holding a watch. She follows him through the woods and accidentally falls down a hole. The hole is a passage to another world, one that seems familiar to her, and while the creatures there recognize her, she doesn’t recognize them. She finds out it is her destiny to take down the Red Queen and restore Wonderland to its former beauty. This movie is really cool to look at. The sets and characters are wild. But the story is rushed and not very interesting and way too many characters are thrown into the mix.
Mia Wasikowska plays Alice. She’s a 19 year old girl who is supposed to be the same Alice who once came to Wonderland as a child. So the movie is definitely a sequel. I feel like I should have watched the old version before seeing this one. I thought it was just a reimagining of the famous Lewis Carroll story when its definitely not. All the characters remember her from her first visit but she just thinks it’s a dream. Johnny Depp plays the Mad Hatter. He was a big disappointment. I realize he was supposed to be crazy but the way he talked was annoying and he kept going back to his Jack Sparrow voice. Half the stuff he said I couldn’t understand. The best character was probably Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen. She was a short little woman with an enormous head and there sure were a lot of head jokes. She had a really funny part. Anne Hathaway was the White Queen and really didn’t have much to do with the story. Crispin Glover was Stayne, the Knave of Hearts. He was the Red Queen’s right hand man. Basically just a soldier who tries tracking down Alice throughout the whole film. And then there were voices by Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit, Stephen Fry as Cheshire Cat, Alan Rickman as the Blue Caterpillar, and Matt Lucas as Tweedledee & Tweedledum. A lot of the side characters were cool to look at and somewhat funny but not even necessary to the story.
Tim Burton directed this based on a screenplay by Linda Woolverton. It was one of those phases where Burton just tried to be as wild as possible. I much more enjoy his better stories with cool visuals like Big Fish, Edward Scissorhands, and Beetle Juice. Are they Oscar worthy screenplays? No. But the stories are interesting to follow and Burton puts cool sets together. Even Batman was a great setpiece of a dark Gotham City right off the pages of a comic book but with a good story behind it. Alice in Wonderland was a jumbled mess that seemed rushed. It was awesome to look at but that’s about it. The 3D wasn’t even that great so I wouldn’t even recommend paying the extra for it. The ending scene was a big Braveheart style battle which was really keeping my interest but definitely out of place with the rest of the movie. Maybe the PG rating hurt it. I would have much rather prefered a big mindfuck of a Wonderland instead of… whatever the hell I got. Maybe I’ll wait for DVD, drop some acid, and give it another shot.
IMDB – 7.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 53%
Movie Wiseguys – 6/10