Tonight the Physicist and I went to see Alice in Wonderland. Being a huge Tim Burton fan, I’d been looking forward to seeing it. Alas, we both left the theater feeling disappointed.
Visually, the movie is great. The special effects are wonderful and they really bring the world alive, even when watching it in 2D. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter are great as the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen respectively.
But good special effects and two good performances can’t make up for a lousy plot. The scriptwriters tried to cram way too much in and, as a result, everything just feels rushed. The writers also decided to shoehorn in elements of Lewis Carroll’s famous poem “The Jabberwocky.” I suspect this was done in order to sex things up with a bit of action, but it ends up being one more thing in an already convoluted mess.
Depp and Bonham-Carter aside, the acting isn’t all that great. Mia Wasikowska’s Alice is wooden and lacks charisma. The White Queen, played by Anne Hathaway, is just annoying with her constant vapid fluttering.
The final strike against this movie is the ending. It’s nothing more than a cliche-ridden attempt to turn this into a Girl Power film. This is even more frustrating because, if the film had ended a scene or two earlier, it would’ve been a much stronger ending.
FINAL GRADE: C
Codex Lochianus 