Alice in Wonderland Reviews

Warning: Spoilers
I personally really love the book, I enjoy the characters and their situations, even if the story is rather oddball and not easy to adapt. In terms of adaptations, the animated film is still my favourite, mainly because I have a lot of nostalgia for it. Coming from somebody who likes Tim Burton's work, I enjoyed this re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland, but I also felt it could have been better. Is it Burton's worst? I think not, that dishonour goes to Planet of the Apes, and I also preferred this over Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But is it his best? No, not by a long shot- Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and Beetle Juice are my personal favourites, while Batman(and its sequel, one of the better sequels to anything I've seen actually), Big Fish and Sleepy Hollow are also brilliant. I haven't seen Sweeney Todd all the way through, I am just wondering whether Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are better than George Hearn and Angela Lansbury in the roles of Sweeney and Mrs Lovett. Anyway that's another story.

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland does have a lot of virtues as well as faults. Starting with the virtues, the visuals are absolutely fantastic. The costumes, especially in the first twenty minutes are absolutely exquisite, the scenery is dark, colourful, lush and wondrous and the special effects and cinematography are well above average too, especially with the imposing-looking Jabberwocky. There have been some comments that didn't like Danny Elfman's score, while his score for Edward Scissorhands is better, I liked his score here, it was fantasy-like and atmospheric and better than his score for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where the Oompah Loompah song especially really annoyed me. It also moves quite quickly, and I liked the references to the original story.

Technicalities aside, there were also some very good performances, as well as some disappointments. Alan Rickman was deliciously suave and dour as the Blue Caterpillar, even if his role was somewhat brief, while Stephen Fry was absolute purr-fection as the Cheshire Cat, with a cheeky smile and bagging some of the best lines such as "I never get involved in politics". Matt Lucas was funny as TweedleDum and TweedleDee, and Michael Sheen was very nice as the White Rabbit. The ever-exceptional Christopher Lee was appropriately menacing as the Jabberwocky, while Helena Bonham Carter is suitably shrill as the Red Queen, though expect the constant repetition of "Off with his/her head" every now and again. A big surprise though was Anne Hathaway, not only did she look stunning but she brought just the right touch of the sweet and the sinister, and Barbara Windsor as the Dormouse was an inspired casting choice.

However, there were one or two performances that weren't quite there. I am sorry to say I found Mia Wasikowska bland as Alice, she looks beautiful but she just didn't quite convince. Then again in her defence, Alice I have found one of the least interesting characters in the story, I always found myself attached to the Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts, Mad Hatter, The Mock Turtle and the White Knight myself. Speaking of the Mad Hatter, I was a little disappointed with Johnny Depp's performance. I liked the make-up and everything, but compared with his more poignant and more human characters(ie. Edward) I felt Depp overdid it with the accent and the eccentricity of the character. Crispin Glover I wasn't so sure about either, I can't put my finger on why, maybe it was because Stayne is a very slimy character and perhaps the sliminess was overdone but maybe that's just me.

Onto the cons of Alice in Wonderland, the story structure I found disjointed. It does start off really well, but it does meander, and then there are scenes that don't quite work especially the Futterwacken Dance, which was out of place and had the WTF? factor about it. Plus while I appreciated the references, the theme of madness is only briefly touched upon, and that was disappointing. While there are some nice funny lines here and there, the writing is clumsy and inconsistent in general, Alice's dialogue in particular is clumsily written at times and woodenly delivered, not to mention a part before the flashback with the Hatter, White Queen and Jabberwocky Hatter's rant sounded like that of a pirate. Burton's direction here isn't as innovative as it is in his earlier films, and some of the characters are devoid of depth and heart, some of them just come and go like a series of vignettes. I think these flaws could have been avoided with a longer film length by twenty minutes or so.

Overall, it is worth watching by all means, but it just lacks something. 6.5/10 Bethany Cox

This film is entertaining with its visuals, but that is about it. I thought it suffered from an identity crisis, and there's very little depth or meaning in all of this.

Not quite as brilliant as I expected when I first saw it in cinemas, the film has nonetheless grown on me. Johnny Depp's creation of the Mad Hatter is wonderful, but it seems to dominate the film, where as Mia Wasikowska's 'Alice' was just as great a character to watch. It is unfortunate too that the film ends with a large action sequence that seems to downgrade the film overall, however the quirkiness and amazing visuals of the film, and the charm that is nevertheless existent despite its flaws, overcomes these. The stand out performance comes from Helena Bonham Carter, whose wonderful interpretation of the Red Queen is hilarious rather than villainous. It is, so far, one of the best films of the year so far and definitely worth watching.

Alice In Wonderland really is a mixed bag. I know that's hardly a way to begin a review, but when you've got a bag as mixed as this, it's hard to know quite where to start. I never can tell what Alice In Wonderland is trying to be, whether a drama, an action movie, a comedy, but it appears to be juggling all three at once, which provides mixed results, as I mentioned previously.

Instead of being a mere adaption of the Alice In Wonderland book, Tim Burton instead creates a story that occurs 13 years after. Alice is set to marry a lord who she does not want to marry at all. Demands from her mother and parents of Alice's predetermined husband further confuse and frustrate Alice. So to escape it all, she follows a familiar rabbit into a rabbit hole, and we all know what will happen from there.

Or do we?

Since this is, in fact, 13 years after the original Wonderland incident, things have changed. Wonderland (or Underland, as we learn it is called) has become a much darker, and dangerous place. Alice is destined to slay a beast called the Jabberwocky, but she doubts herself, and the Red Queen wants her killed.

It's all a little bit more complicated than it needs to be. But Underland is all about complications.

I will start by pointing out Alice In Wonderland's biggest strength: The visuals. Between the magnificent makeup, the ridiculous costumes, the outrageous hair, and stunning special effects (and they are stunning sometimes), Alice In Wonderland is one of the most visually captivating films ever made.

But if only everything else was as wonderful and undeniably incredible as the visual effects. The characters, while mostly amusing, feel a little bit...predictable. Tim Burton usually likes to recreate the characters, but instead, we get virtually the same characters from the book (and animated Disney movie), with little exception. True, Burton tries to flesh them out a bit more and add additional back story, but it does little to separate the characters in this adaption from the animated version.

The acting, like the film, is a huge mixed bag. That's not to say that there are BAD actors. All the acting is very good, it's just expected. Predictable, like the characters. Most everyone is played by the book, with no special spin on almost any of them. Johnny Depp disappoints in his role as the Mad Hatter. He needs to be over the top and ridiculous. Instead, he's just rather ordinary. What happened to the wacky, bizzareness that be brought us in Charlie In The Chocolate Factory?

But this isn't always the case with the acting. Helena Bonham Carter (as the Red Queen) is as outrageous and ridiculous as she needs to be, and more. Her acting is by far the most impressive in the film. Carter ends up doing the performance Depp should've done, but doesn't. One performance I didn't expect to like was Anne Hathaway's as The White Queen. "She's much too recognizable." I thought. And I was right. But she does perfectly. She's extremely dramatic and flowy, and she does a marvelous job.

Without doing any research on the score beforehand, I knew that it was composed by Danny Elfman. After looking it up after the film, I was proven correct. Here's how I knew: It sounds like all his other scores. Yes, Elfman's a great composer, but all his scores sound alike, each borrowing elements from his last score. If Elfman can't get his act together, Burton may need to look for a new composer.

My last opinion about Alice In Wonderland may be the most important: It makes sense. Well, mostly anyway. It's not nearly as whimsical and bizzare as it should be. It's actually, relatively straight forward. Alice In Wonderland just isn't weird enough. It needs to be more odd. More outrageous. The animated version did a much better job at this.

I wanted to like this film. I wanted to love it. But Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland just isn't the film it should be. But it's not half-bad. If you haven't already seen Alice In Wonderland, it's not a bad diversion; it's just not a very good one.

This film is by far the single biggest disappointment from Tim Burton I have ever seen. Words cannot express the sheer excitement I had going into this movie, considering Tim Burton and Alice in Wonderland seemed to be a match made in heaven. This film was a complete disaster, and arguably one of the safest, most bland "fantasy" films I've ever seen. This is partially the fault of writer Linda Woolverton, whose past credits (The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast) led me to believe the screenplay would be in good hands. Either she ate some of Wonderland's mushrooms before writing this or Disney shat upon her script, because the dialogue and the sequences of events were horrendous. The film is odd for its own sake, and even then it doesn't achieve anything interesting because of it. What should have been a nonsensical fun ride in the vein of Burton's early films was instead a stereotypical fantasy war film that played by all the rules and was disgustingly safe. I absolutely hate this film and everything about it.

Of course this is going to be an amazing film...It's a Tim Burton film! It's a great take on the classic. I love how Burton portrayed his characters, especially the Mad Hatter. It's one of those films that allows you to leave reality for an hour or so and be a part of the film, it's fantastic. Tim Burton, You've done it again. No surprise here :)

Alice in Wonderland is a very excellent movie. The movie passed without me blinking, there was no dull moment what so ever. By the time it reached signs of the "end" I asked myself, has it been 5 minutes yet? The movie puts you in a very interesting world with strange places and characters. The music in this film was the best music I've heard in a movie in a long time. The acting was amusing and little details about the characters' personalities was made in a very smart fashion that will keep you entertained through out the movie. I give Alice in Wonderland a 6 or 7 for all the fun that I had watching it, I wished it was 1 hour longer.

Because they must have a big war and Depp has to be both the main love interest and bad ass sword fighter. Same for main character. And dance. Any chance Mr. Burton is ripping on Hollywood? The red castle is just past a desert.
Calling this movie Alice in Wonderland was a big mistake because while girl goes to magic land and the characters are there, there is no other real similarity. Movie feels like its abusing the characters ambiance and point. I guess that's why its called a "re-imagining." Maybe I'm thinking of the good Disney animation as the comparison.

The ending in the real world is weird. Can anyone explain it?

I liked both Queens, parts of Alice and the cat. Also the blending of CGI and real pictures or whatever really happened there was amazing.

Quotes from other reviewers:
Only this time around Alice learns her true destiny, she must be the one to save Wonderland from the clutches of the read queen.

2. As much as I love action in movies, this movie wasn't supposed to have any action, just whimsical. This isn't "The Chronicles of Narnia", people! And 3: The Mad Hatter breakdancing. That's what Chester A. Bum calls "THE BIG-LIPPED ALLIGATOR MOMENT!" But still, Tim Burton's remake of "Alice in Wonderland" an OK film.

It is one of the few films that combines live action and animation together. Obviously, the visual effects were absolutely stunning but I felt that the filming was rushed.
Captain Jack Sparrow and Willy Wonka. In fact, the Mad Hatter was just a mixed character between them.

And ofc a lot of what Pvt Caboose said.

Except I don't feel any "real emotional involvement" with the Narnia aspect at all. The queen looks downright sympathetic, there is no threat, the end is obvious, the relation to the real world is very simplistic and these characters are not supposed to be badass. If anything making them goofy would have been a whole lot better. I would rather have seen "Alice navigates Victorian society", "Alice convinces the red queen to be good", "Alice leads goofy ragtag Wonderland characters to victory", or "Alice wanders Wonderland for advice and insight on her world."

MovieBob understands. At least this movie.

Before watching this flick, I was torn between 2 feelings. The first one was 'Yes! Another movie directed by Tim Burton starring Johnny Depp! I can't wait, it should be awesome!' and the second feeling was more like 'No... Another movie directed by Tim Burton starring Johnny Depp... Couldn't they just move on with something else?'. Eventually, 5 years later, it is rather interesting to see that the careers of both men has been become seriously disappointing. Anyway, eventually, I thought that this movie was actually pretty good but nothing amazing though. Indeed, the main reason why I still enjoyed it was because the visuals were just great but, honestly, the story was nothing exceptional. I'm sure many people will scream about how terrible this adaptation was but it wasn't really my problem but it was definitely a rather weak story which wasn't really faithfull to the original but not different enough either so this tale felt rather half-baked. Still, the whole thing was definitely gorgeous to look at and the story was entertaining enough. To conclude, it is definitely not a masterpiece but, for blockbuster, it was not bad at all and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Tim Burton's work.

Alice in wonderland did not live up to the hype, but it was still pretty good. I think it made too much sense. The old Alice in Wonderland didn't make any sense at all, nobody really knows what it's about. But this one was easier to understand. The visuals were cool though, and I really liked Helena Bonham Carter as The Red Queen.