As you may remember from my last post, I went to see the new Tim Burton film Alice in Wonderland last weekend. I was excited to see the film since I absolutely love Tim Burton’s work and am also a fan of many of the actors in the film (especially Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter). Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the movie. Usually I think that Johnny Depp makes a film, this time, he definitely broke it. I should mention that there may be some spoilers in my review. You have been warned.
Alice in Wonderland
The concept of the movie was interesting enough; it’s set a number of years after Alice was in Wonderland as a kid and she has no memory of it, but has recurring dreams about the experience that haunt her. The setup for her going back to Wonderland is somewhat contrived, but once she gets there, it’s filled with familiar characters and settings. We discover she has been brought back to Wonderland to help defeat the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) who has taken over the crown from her sister the White Queen (Anne Hathaway). Without going too much into detail, the plot is very reminiscent of the original and is greatly helped by the wonderful acting of Alice (Mia Wasikowska) who I thought was the best part of the movie. The movie takes a turn in the wrong direction when we meet the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp). I am no stranger to the Wonderland character, and I understand that he is supposed to be a bit off and crazy, but Depp’s interpretation was just a bit too much for me. The character draws attention away from the brilliant acting of Wasikowska and really brings the movie down to more childish level, but not in a good way. Like most Burton films, the plot has its darker side which helped the film to earn a PG rating, a lot of which is found in the backstory of the Hatter. Depp is known for tackling weird or difficult roles and, I think, usually pulls them off quite well, but this time, I feel like he missed the mark. The character bounces between different accents in a very weird and highly distracting manner. The hatter is meant to be mad, yes, but I think the film needed a bit more controlled madness, because he really just ended up pulling all the attention when he really was not the most important character.
Despite being less than pleased with certain elements, I really liked the place that Burton went with film. As always, I love the way his mind works and cannot wait to see what he comes up with next, but I really hope that it’s an original film in the same vein as Corpse Bride or The Nightmare Before Christmas. I feel his talents are much better suited for these original works than for tinkering around with mostly disappointing remakes of older films. I definitely enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory better than Alice, but none of them hold a candle to the genius that was The Nightmare Before Christmas. His original works are mostly claymation, but I would absolutely love to see him do a new original movie with live action. I know he is capable of better things than Alice. Maybe he can work with Wasikowska again. I can see them having a strong film together. He really just needs to stay away from remakes!