Movie review: Alice in Wonderland
Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas and Mia Wasikowska
Rating: **3/4
If you were planning on taking your kids for Alice in Wonderland, don't! It's not because it's a bad movie… it's quite the opposite. The movie's good!
It's just that it's a rather dark take on Lewis Carroll's classic by the same name.
Director Tim Burton's movie takes place in a grim 'Underland' aka Wonderland. Alice (played by new comer Mia Wasikowska) has grown up. She's 19, has forgotten her last trip down the rabbit hole, and really wishes to wake up from this dream. Oh, and she stubbornly refuses to realise her destiny.
This time, instead of crazy tea parties with the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the March Hare and Door Mouse, Alice is on a mission to swipe the Vorpal sword from under the nose of the ghastly Red Queen (played brilliantly by Helena Bonham Carter) and slay the Jabberwocky, all to right wrongs, free the suppressed and restore the floaty, nicey-nice White Queen (Anne Hathaway) as rightful queen of the land.
This verions of Alice in Wonerland is so far away from the original that purists might feel cheated. They might wonder who stole the joie the vivre from the 'Mad Tea Party', why no one cares about stolen tarts and why no one's dancing the Lobster Quadrille.
The King is dead (he's replaced by Stayne - Knave of Hearts) and the furniture is quite literally, held together by animals!
Yet, Wonderland, rendered in 3D, is a visual treat. It's dark, it's creepy, it's burnt to the ground, but it's beautifully visualised and marvelously executed in true Tim Burton style.
You walk through Underland's forests with Alice and the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat floats inches from your nose, and you duck with each lash of Alice's Vorpal sword. James Cameron, eat your heart out!
Depp is brilliant as the slightly schizophrenic Mad Hatter and Bonham Carter's big-headed petulant Red Queen is fabulous. Crispin Glover's Knave of Hearts is adequately evil and lecherous, but Hathaway is wasted as the too-kind White Queen. However, Wasikowska's Alice leaves us cold.
All in all, Alice in Wonderland is a good watch, especially in 3D.
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