Alice In Wonderland: Movie Review

Alice In Wonderland: Movie Review

Alice In Wonderland
Rating: 6/10
Cast: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Anne Hathaway, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas, Crispin Glover, Mia Wasikowska
Director: Tim Burton
Johnny Depp and Tim Burton reteam once again - this time it's for an adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland.
Mia Wasikowska is 19 year old Alice, a girl who's facing the possibility of being married off to a man she doesn't love and on the verge of enduring a life she really doesn't want.
As she runs off to consider the proposal, she falls down a rabbit hole and finds herself in Wonderland.
However, on her entrance to Wonderland, she finds she has a destiny to fulfill - she must free the land from the tyranny of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham-Carter) and restore happiness to the land she visited as a child in her dreams.
But with the Red Queen on the war path, and the evil Jabberwocky to be unleashed, it looks like Alice really has her work cut out.
Well, Alice In Wonderland is clearly a Tim Burton film - once again, he's reteamed with two of his muses; Johnny Depp onscreen and with composer Danny Elfman. It's also full of the trademark Gothic landscapes and oddball imagery.
Mia Wasikowska is slightly aloof and stifled at the start of the film - which in some ways is befitting as her character clearly doesn't fit into Victorian ways of life; but it makes it hard to feel much for her in the early stages of the film. She's also not the strongest actress it has to be said - her re-emergence at the end from the rabbit hole and re-entrance into society isn't quite as powerful as you'd expect from one who's undergone such a journey.
Johnny Depp is unhinged and ever so slightly sinister as the Mad Hatter, flitting from English and Scottish accents for reasons which don't quite seem obvious - but he makes the Hatter a bit of a crazy zany character - once again, it's another oddball performance for Depp and one which is perfectly suited for the continuing Burton/ Depp partnership.
Stephen Fry is wonderful as the Cheshire cat - thanks to his mellifluous tones, the Cat is a real treat in the film as the wisp-like creature wafts in and out; and it has to be said the star of the film is clearly the CGI and the Wonderland world itself.
Burton's created a nightmarish version of Wonderland - full of odd colours and architecture which seems perfectly in tune with his vision; there's some great images - such as Alice negotiating a raft of heads the Red Queen's had cut off and cast in the moat around her castle. It seems as if technology's finally got to give Burton the chance to create the vision he's always hinted at in previous films - and he's relished the opportunity to create a memorable Wonderland.

Ultimately, this Alice In Wonderland is an insight into Burton's mind - it's zany and visually crazy in parts; however, due to a bit of a lack of an emotional connection, it's a little bit sprawling at times and doesn't quite live upto its initial promise.