A Review of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

There is something wrong with Tim Burton. It is the same thing that has been wrong with him from the very beginning of his career in making major motion pictures, but it is something that he never does anything to correct. It is like he simply threw up his hands, long ago, and said he just couldn't fix his problem and, so, the world would just have to like him as he is. The problem is, the industry he works in, requires someone who can tell compelling, well-thought-out stories and not just present wonders for the eyes. Burton presents many amazing wonders for the eyes, but his stories always fall short. What this ends up doing is leaving eager movie-goers, like myself, who WANT to like Burton for the visual feasts he present, going "meh" when we leave the theater.

Don't get me wrong, Burton has made some very good films. I can name the ones that I particularly enjoy. I liked: Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Ed Wood and Big Fish. Those last two are particular favorites and exceptional movies. However, they are movies that had little visual spectacle and some actual story to tell. Yes, they were not big money-makers in Burton's lexicon, but they were better all-around movies. I have also enjoyed many movies he has produces like The Nightmare Before Christmas. He had made one outright stinker in the form of Mars Attacks! In between these movies he has made many a movie that looked fantastic in the movie trailers, and then failed to deliver the promised pay off when the movie was viewed. It's like Burton is making movies just for the movie trailers.

So now we have Alice in Wonderland. Johnny Depp is once again in the movie, heavily made-up and turning in another decent performance. However, this should have been a slam-dunk. The movie is based on a childhood classic, right? So, Burton did not have to write the story. He only had to film it, right? It should be a match made in heaven.

Sadly, this match did not turn out as heavenly as hoped. Yes, the movie is full of great special effects. Burton successfully creates a dazzling Wonderland filled with amazing creatures both great and small. Visually, this movie is dazzling eye candy. If you are looking just for dazzling eye candy, then you should find yourself enjoying "Alice in Wonderland." However, if you are looking for a story, and a movie that will leave you dazzled, amazed and glad to have spent all of the money to just did, plus the extra bucks for the 3-D glasses, then you will be disappointed. I saw the movie just two nights ago as I write this and, already, much of the movie has faded from my mind.

First off, the 3-D does absolutely nothing to add to this film. There are maybe three scenes where the effect pays off. Yes, one of those is the scene where Alice falls down the rabbit hole. However, the rest of the time the glasses do little but dim the colors and light on the screen and balance annoyingly on your nose, especially if you already have glasses as I do. Unlike "Avatar" where the 3-D actually enhanced the entire experience of the movie, it does nothing for "Alice in Wonderland."

This version of Alice is much older than the one you might remember from other tales. She is almost 20-years-old when this movie starts. She is about to become engaged to a very unattractive, stuffy and boring rich man. Her father has died and her mother is trying to do what she thinks is best for her daughter. However, Alice is a dreamer, likes to speak her mind, hates wearing the corsets and other clothing of the day, and still dreams of chasing rabbits down holes.

At the party arranged for her engagement, she sees the rabbit. She follows him, falls down the hole, and ends up back in Wonderland. However, she has convinced herself, over the years, that her memories from there when she was a child were just dreams. In fact, she spends much of the movie convinced her time there now is just a dream. She finds a Wonderland in crisis. The Red Queen rules the land like a dictatorship and the moat around her castle flows with blood and floating heads of the countless people she has had executed during her reign.

Alice has to come and get the Vorpal Sword and slay the deadly and vicious Jabberwocky. Then the land will become bright and wonderful again. All of this is told with many a visual spectacle. The Red Queen, played by Helena Bonham Carter, is rather amazing with her enormous head and tiny body. Carter turns in one of the best performances in the movie.

Depp is the Mad Hatter. As always, he turns in a dazzling performance and does, yet another, accent. Depp has become one of filmdom's most reliable actors. He can play just about anything and play it well. His Hatter is haunted, filled with memories of the Wonderland that was.

All of the characters are here. There is a hookah-smoking caterpillar and a door-mouse. There is Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum. There is the Cheshire Cat. All of them are here, and they are all doing a tremendous amount of stuff on screen that is all supposed to be amazing and wonderful and fill you with delight. Instead, the third part of the movie becomes yet another movie with huge armies facing off and fighting and the story itself just kind of falls apart. When I find myself looking at my watch or wondering what dinner will be like when I leave the theater instead of being totally caught up in the movie, it is a movie that is not succeeding in holding my attention.

I want to like Tim Burton films. I really do. However, he really needs to find a way to work on his stories and not his visuals. He has the visuals down pat and can probably do them in his sleep. Now he needs to take some time to develop some powerful stories that are so throughout the movie. If he just cannot do them, then he had better find some writers who can. Then he needs to focus on filming those stories and let the story dazzle. Right now, he is still working the realm of all flash, but very little substance.