Or as it should have been called: Alice in Wonderland 2.
Before watching this movie i was sure of two things: death and taxes. After watching it, i am now sure of three things: death, taxes and that there never should've been a sequel to the Disney film, Alice in Wonderland.
I saw this movie in 3D, but i felt the 3d was, much like the film as a whole, an unnecessary addition. It pops up here and there, but really isn't utilized to any meaningful degree beyond having the credits swirl out at you. Curse you, Disney, and your new anti-piracy measure that costs $3 more, but doesn't deliver anything in terms of entertainment value!
One thing to note is that while i did find the movie to be dull and unnecesasry, it did raise a couple of questions. Namely, why is Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter a main character? Also, WHY IS JOHNNY DEPP'S MAD HATTER A MAIN CHARACTER!? It's a completely unnecessary character promotion. Worse still, he ends up overshadowing Alice (you know, the girl from the title?). But not because of a powerful performance on Depp's part, just because the damned Mad Hatter is made far more important to the story for no obvious reason.
Of course Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is still there, she's just reduced to secondary character status. Sure, she's in virtually every scene from start to finish, but her dialogue is largely purposeless and her actions unimportant (for the most part). When she does speak or do anything she adds nothing to the story and it almost feels like the only reason she's there is because it is, in fact, Alice In Wonderland; though Johnny Depp In Wonderland would've been a more appropriate title.
The movie itself rehashes a lot of the original movie's scenes (but in 3d): Alice falling down the rabbit hole, Alice eating cake to grow and drinking tonic to shrink, the tea party, etc - but none of it feels like it's needed. It's just Alice going through the actions, doing everything exactly as before. All because, as we're told later, she thinks it's just a dream she's had many times. In fact, the entire pre-wonderland section of the film is nothing but a not-so-thinly-veiled excuse to get Alice into that rabbit hole as quickly as possible so we can be shown these re-done scenes all in the name of, let's just say, "entertainment".
Overall, the film is just dull and unendearing with the only redeeming part being when Alice fights the Jabberwocky (don't worry, it makes just as much sense in context as out). Of course, it's still preceeded by 1 and a half hours worth of Alice saying she's not going to do it, feverishly stupid scenes that are confusing (but not in the charming "Lewis Carroll" way) and Johnny Depp... i still don't know why he was made a main character. Alice certainly pulls off the "in a suit of armor" look well, thanks to the feminine cut of the armor (where do they get those?).
Though i used to like Tim Burton, he's becoming something of a tired act to follow. His movies have spectacular visuals and (more often than not) Johnny Depp, but there really isn't anything else to them anymore. They all have a creepy nightmarish feel, but that's just not good enough to be called "art" anymore.
I'm desparately waiting for the day when 3D special effects and Johnny Depp are not enough to sell out a theatre. Here's a sobering nightmare for your, hollywood: one day the appeal of these things is going to run out. What's more, you'll be out of remakes and sequels and reinvisionings and everything else you've been living off of for the past decade or so. Then what will you do? Will you gracelessly drift into obscurity and irrelevance clinging to what power elites you still have and rely on viral marketing to save your perpetual flops? Or will you foresee this as a coming problem and break your inbreeding cycle well ahead of time and take a chance on some new blood: fresh artists, actors, writers and directors?
I ask these questions, but they are entirely rhetorical. We all know which path hollywood's going to stick by; it's the one that's profitable in the extremely short term.
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