ALICE IN WONDERLAND
2010
Tim Burton
Tim Burton is one of our great directors. He doesn't have the storytelling skills of Spielberg, the cinematic craft of Scorsese, the coolness of Tarantino or the epic vision of Peter Jackson, but he is probably the greatest visual craftsmen cinema can offer, a direct descendent from people like Rober Wiene and Murnau, the masters of German expressionism. And Lewis Carrol, well he wrote what is by far the best children's book of all time. So when I heard that Tim Burton was doing an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland I was really excited, I mean this should have been a match made in heaven. And I still belive it would have been, had Burton addapted Carrol's story from the actual books and not done a sequel like he did, and definatly not one with an epic scale. Carrol's tale is supposed to be low key, not epic... That being said I still found myself really enjoying the movie.
First of all the characters are all perfectly imagined, especially some of the minor characters. Also, the actors playing them are fantastic, such as Stephen Fry as the Cheshire cat, Alan Rickman as the Blue Catterpillar, Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts, Barbara Windsor as the Doormouse, Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit, Matt Lucas as the Tweedels, Paul Withouse as the March Hare and Christopher Lee as the Jabberwocky. Most of the main characters are also quite good, Anne Hathaway is lovely yet creepy as the White Queen, Bonham Carter is very weird as Red Queen and despite not being as memorable as the one from the Disney's animated movie does her job well. Then there is Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, he crafted another fantastic character, and while not as good as Jack Sparrow (then again, what is?) he is very funny to watch and his little dance at the end is one of the movie's quirkiest and funniest scenes. Newcomer Mia Wasikowska as Alice is however as flat as a wooden board and the character deserved better.
The cinematography and production values are gorgeous and the 3D is some of the most beautiful I have ever seen, also some of the darker scenes (like when Alice has to hop on decapitated heads to get to the Red Castle) will creep the kids out and have Burton fans salivating. The score, by Danny Elfman, is not memorable as the work he did on basically every other movie he's done with Burton, but it still works. It is in the story and mostly in the scale that this movie fails.
First the story is a very simple one (yet told on an epic scale): basically Alice, now a teenager, returns to Wonderland, and has to help everyone to bring down the Red Queen. I really don't see the need for a sequel, and the 2009 Syfy channel special is a much more interesting take on it to be honest, but I would have been okay with it since all the characters are amazing and by far the best we have ever seen in any of the books adaptations.
What is really wrong with the movie is the scale, and who do we have to blame for this? I would say Peter Jackson and his Lord of the Rings trilogy. You see like every single other fantasy movie that has come out since and tried to be epic Alice just feels flat. There are numerous examples: Chronicles of Narnia, the Golden Compass or even the Harry Potter movies, they all try to be epic and fail and whislt they are still enjoyable (some more than the others) they never feel has big as Lord of the Rings. Smaller scale flicks have been much better, like the Bridge to Terabithia or last year's Cirque du Freak and they are better because they avoid comparisions with Lord of the Rings.
Also Tim Burton, as good a director as he is, just doesn't have an epic vision, take a look at his back catalogue... Do you prefer Planet of the Apes or Edward Scissorhands?? Tim Burton is at his best when he does low key dark fantasy flicks such as the above mentioned Scissorhands, Big Fish, Sweeney Todd, Beetljuice, Corpse Bride or Nightmare Before Christimas (even though he didn't direct this one), just to name a few. What's really annoying here is that Lewis Carrol book, as great as it is, is not an epic one, there is no need for big battles (that will only feel small due to the Lord of the Rings scale). It is a simple, lowkey story, about a girl who dreams of the weirdest world you could possible imagine.
Having read the book numerous times, having seen all of Burton's movies and after having seen some of the brilliant character designs in this movie it pains me to know that if Burton had kept to the two original stories, like I thought he was going to when it was anounced, this would have been one of my favourite movies of all time, insted it became just another Chronicles of Narnia, enjoyable and gorgeous to look at yet somehow flat.
I would still recommend it, if only for the the special effects and characters, then go home and watch the Disney movie and the 1999 Hallmark TV special, then wonder why in over 100 years of cinema noone has yet been able to properly adapt Carrols masterpiece, then read the book, then think how great this movie could have been if only Tim Burton had made the right decisions, then go and watch Edward Scissorhands and forgive the man because he is still, undeniably, one of the finest directors we have!
Direction – 6
Story – 4
Cinematography and Special Effects – 9
Score – 6
Acting – 8
Overall – 7.5
1 comment:
Alice dream travel, I like the movie, I have seen a lot of times, really very good.
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