This movie represents another one in the long line of movies which is derived from rummaging through classic children’s literature and re-interpreted as a Gothic version by the director and shot through a grimmer, darker prism. Having said that, please don’t get the wrong impression here! It’s not a bad movie by any stretch of imagination. It is actually quite decent compared to 90% of the stuff churned out by Hollywood, but in the final analysis, it’s not the breath-taking, awe-inspiring, curl-your-toes film I wanted and expected from the Oscar-winning Director!
I think it is pointless to analyze the movie in terms of the adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic as it actually proceeds as a sequel of the tale we all know and love. Burton’s Alice is not a confused Victorian child of Carroll’s tale but a grown up 19 year old (played outstandingly with amazing grace and gravitas by Mia Wasikowska) who is more independent and sure of herself. She withstands the pressure to marry an aristocratic prig who doesn’t share her creative imagination and chooses to follow her heart..er..White Rabbit (voice of Michael Sheen) into a hole and into the Underland of her childhood dreams. It is here that the CG effects start coming at you thick and fast in quick succession and you barely find the time to assimilate, let alone like any of the quirky characters of the Underland. Among the famous array of characters Alice meets are the Tweedledee and Tweedledum (both played by Matt Lucas), Dormouse Mallymkun (voice of Barbara Windsor), Cheshire cat (voice of Stephen Fry), and a smoking Caterpiller (voice of Alan Rickman).
Alice eventually meets the crazy Mad Hatter who becomes her ally in the fight against the Red Queen so as to enable the White Queen to return to power in Underland. Mad Hatter has been played superbly by Johnny Depp, although he occasionally gives you a feeling of déjà vu with his character. I think it is time for Tim Burton and Johnny Depp to divorce each other so we as viewers can see a spark of freshness in their characters and films. Helena Bonham Carter was brilliant as the Queen of Hearts and stole the show from right under Depp’s nose. Her character’s Valentine lollipop look with a huge bulbous head was visually stunning and the cantankerous voice she used to terrorize her subjects was pitch perfect! Anne Hathaway as the White Queen was fairly competent.
The narrative of the movie is fairly linear and Burton has attempted to weave the disjointed events of the tale into some sort of a coherent sequential story. However, the more the plot line digressed from the original tale, the more flawed the movie appeared with the climax being the weakest and looking straight out of a Tolkien book. Although, to be fairly honest the final act of Alice fighting the Jabberwocky (voice by Christopher Lee) had quite a few kids at the edge of their seats.
Ultimately, I was disappointed. I expected Underland to be as-awesome-as and more-imaginative-than Pandora, but unfortunately all I got was gimmicky sequences of things flying onto my screen one after the other. It gave me a headache watching some of those scenes. This movie was originally shot for 2D and up-converted to 3D later, which resulted in the end product being more distracting than spectacular. Avatar really set the standard for filming movies in 3D with 3D cameras and is light years ahead of the curve!
However, I think at the end of the day, we need to remember who this massively hyped Disney movie is ultimately made for. If the barely concealed excitement and the chortled glees of a little princess sitting next to me were any indication, Tim Burton has once again hit the mark with this one!
Thank you minnie for your wonderful review. Now I have suitably lowered my expectations, but wild horses could not keep me away from this one. Only question is, 2D or 3D?
ReplyDeleteMinnie - Thanks a lot for the wonderfully written review. I am sure i will NOT be watching this movie, so no promise of watching the movie, and then commenting.
ReplyDeleteThis is the second movie review of yours i have read, and i have loved each one of them. Even explosion of your random comments (thoughts) have such a narrative flow. Please do more movie reviews, as and when time permits.
Thanks so much Pardesi and Illusionist. You guys are way too generous in your praise :-)
ReplyDeleteIf someone told me a few months back, I would ever be writing a movie review, it would sound as imaginary to me as Alice's Wonderland :-)
@Pardesi: I honestly can't answer the 2D vs 3D question for you, as it is so much of an individual preference. Speaking for me personally, I probably would have preferred the 2D version, but the opinion in my home is divided on that one !!
Yes I like Tim Burton and Johnny Depp but this review has ensured I will not see that film.
ReplyDeleteMasand's Verdict: Alice In Wonderland is underwhelming
ReplyDeleteIt's worth a one-time visit
Cast: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Wasikowska
Director: Tim Burton
Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland is a shockingly underwhelming film that won't please fans of Lewis Carroll's beloved 19th century book, or fans of the filmmaker either. Although its seamless blend of live action and computer animation is predictably impressive, the film has the misfortune of being the first major 3D release to arrive after the Avatar revolution and -- given that the film was shot in 2D and its footage subsequently converted -- ends up looking cartoonish and flat, and not particularly improved by the 3D technology.
The original story was about a young Alice and her adventure in Wonderland, but Burton's film focuses on her as a relatively grown-up 19-year-old (played by Mia Wasikowska), who dumps her aristocratic suitor and follows a white rabbit into the magical land of her childhood, of which she has no memory, only a few sketchy dreams.
When Alice arrives in Underland, as the residents call it, she is joined by all the usual suspects for a joyless tea party -- Cheshire Cat, March Hare, and of course, the Mad Hatter himself (played by Johnny Depp in clownish ginger hair). They inform Alice of her destiny -- she must slay the dragon Jabberwocky and overthrow the evil Red Queen (played by Helena Bonham Carter sporting a giant bulbous head), making way for the kind-but-kooky White Queen (played by Anne Hathaway) to ascend the throne.
As die-hard fans of the original book and its sequel, 'Through The Looking Glass', will tell you, the chief problem with Burton's film -- and the script in fact from which it's derived -- is that it makes perfect sense. The charm of Lewis Carroll's story lies in the fact that it's whimsical, ridiculous and nonsensical, and yet it's so much fun. The film, unfortunately, turns it into a sensible, linear and conventional narrative, which to be fair is a crime against the source material.
Visually the film is a confused cross between candy-colored treat and Burtonesque goth, although there is some fun to be had in this world of wonders where animals talk and even flowers speak their mind. The mystical, grinning Cheshire Cat, and the wise blue caterpillar Absolum are the film's more memorable CGI inventions. But the characters you're most likely to remember are the dimwitted egg-shaped twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee (both voiced by Little Britain's Matt Lucas), and Bonham Carter's lunatic, shrill-voiced Red Queen.
In the end, if you can forgive the video-game climax and the film's overcrowded feel, perhaps you won't be too disappointed. Johnny Depp, playing Edward Scissorhands but with orange hair, is always a watchable actor, and to some degree he saves this film.
I'm going with two-and-a-half out of five and a strictly average rating for Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland; it's worth a one-time visit, but it's unlikely that you'll want to come back again!
Rating: 2.5 / 5
http://movies.ibnlive.in.com/reviews/masands-verdict/masands-verdict-alice-in-wonderland-is-underwhelming/184743/0