Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland

This weekend after watching Inception and eating some yummy BBQ, Garrett and I went to RedBox and checked out Alice in Wonderland. It's safe to say that it was not, by any means, the high point of the evening.



Now, I went into this movie expecting it to be weird in that Tim Burton way, knowing that it was a sequel, and having been forewarned it was a little dark. I had heard some people say they were disappointed, but I figured they just did not know what to expect. But oh, I did. Or so I thought. Like (some) others, I found myself disappointed as well, mostly in the story itself or the lack thereof. Let's start at the beginning...



The movie opens with young Alice looking for her father after her disturbing dream of a rabbit wearing a waistcoat, a smiling cat, and a blue caterpillar. She fears she has gone mad, but her father assures her these that the best people often are mad. Alice obviously appreciates her father and they have a good relationship. We jump forward ten years. Alice's father has been dead for a few years, and she and her mom are attending a party. She and her mom seem to have a good relationship, but her mom does not seem to understand her the same way her father did. They also discuss the continuous dreams of Alice has of Wonderland (though she does not refer to it as such and seems bothered by them). Shortly after arriving at the party, Alice comes to learn that the affair is actually her engagement party as her "suitor" Hamish is going to propose to her. Alice does not really care for Hamish and while she knows the appropriate response, she is not sure if she can go through with it. All during the party, Alice has been distracted by a rabbit, and is once again once Hamish pops the question. She quickly apologizes and runs off, and finds herself tumbling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland.



She goes through the eat me/drink me routine, and then she is greeted by the rabbit, a little mouse, a dodo bird, and Tweedledee and Tweedledumb. The mouse is quite insistent that the white rabbit brought the wrong Alice. There's about a 10 minute argument about whether or not Alice is the right Alice, and finally Alice learns that the correct Alice, whether that is her or someone is, is supposed to slay a dragon on a certain day that is drawing near, according to a picture scroll. Alice is hesitant about slaying the dragon, and also recognizes that these are the characters of her dreams, and keeps insisting to herself over and over that she is only in a dream.

Alice interacts with the other characters: the Cheshire Cat, the caterpillar, the Mad Hatter, and eventually the Red Queen (and the White Queen... whoever that is...).

"Alice, you must slay the dragon."

"But I don't want to."

This conversation takes place several times, as well as a lot of Alice running away from the Knave of Hearts, who is ordered by the Red Queen to hunt for her, as she knows that she has returned to Wonderland to slay the dragon.



Alice ends up in the Red Queen's garden. Though the Queen can recognize the back of Alice's head in a drawing, she cannot seem to recognize her self face-to-face, and she takes Alice in as her "new favorite." Meanwhile, several of the Wonderland creatures have been captured and Alice plots how to get them out. Alice is able to escape first and heads off to find the White Queen, and then the Queen realizes who she is and who her accomplices are, and of course demands: "Off with their heads!" After a clever escape from execution, everyone rushes off the White Queen's castle to await the next day, the day which Alice is supposed to slay the dragon.

By this point in the story, Alice finally believes she is not dreaming and remembers being in Wonderland when she was younger. And though overwhelmed by the task, she finally starts to think a little differently. She has several decisions to make, both about what she will do in Wonderland and what she will do at home.

That's more than enough synopsis, to lead up to this point: I felt that everything in this movie had potential and that most of it fell short. First the positive: the movie looks great. Wonderland is as intriguing as you would expect it to from Tim Burton, and Alice has a wide array of costume changes that are unique.



Also, I felt the ending had a nice message, but even this could have been developed more I believe.

Now for the negative: a lot of the movie is underdeveloped, from the storyline to the characters. It seems that Burton depended on our previous knowledge of the characters to get us through the movie, which is understandable in a sequel, but the problem is: the characters are obviously not the same. This is especially true of the Mad Hatter. When I heard that Johnny Depp had been cast as the Mad Hatter, I could just imagine the possibilities. It seemed so brilliant. But it was so disappointing. His character adds very little to the movie, and he's just weird. And not in a fun and quirky way. More in a kind-of-crazy-but-not-funny way.



I actually feel like the character who is most developed is the Red Queen, and she is certainly the most interesting. Alice is developed decently but it could have been better. The White Queen, who we're supposed to like a lot better than her sister Red Queen seems nice but creepy and her personality seems relatively flat as well.

Overall, I would give this movie a C. The movie had a magical look, but for me, it definitely lacked the magical feeling. For those who saw it, what did you think?