Alice in Wonderland review.

I'm still trying to get into the habit of doing this but being the busy man I am I haven't had the time/couldn't be bothered.

Anyways, I went to see Tim burtons Alice in Wonderland tonight. I've been apprehensive about this for some time considering the over emphasis on it being in 3D and more alarmingly it being marketed almost soley on the fact Johnny Depp was in it.Before I go on I'd like to point out that I've never read Lewis Carol's work and have no love for the original Disney film so I was able to view the film completely unbiased.

Firstly, I did not see the film in 3D on account of me being a complete cheap skate and the fact that on this particular occasion no amount of visual stimulation would compensate for just how goofy I would look in a pair of Austin Powers specs. On the subject of the visuals, I think people, like myself, will be immediatly turned off by the CGI animation of the characters, however the style of animation grew on me as the film progressed. Secondly, the performances here are great and I was pleasantly supprised by newcomer (I haven't seen her in anything) Mia Wasikowska who made for an excellent lead and the supporting cast all turned in strong albeit eccentric performances.

Then of course there's Johnny Depp whose mainstream success as of late has brought him considerable backlash from the critics and fanboys who consider him a 'sell out'. Well I am both a Johnny Depp fan and a(Aspiring) critic and I thought his portrayal of the Hatter here was a triumph. Once again i'd like to reitterate that I have not read the Lewis Caroll's work and am reviewing the film as an original text not an adaptation. Sure, Depp is once again playing the oddball, the misfit, the freak if you will, but this is not a one dimensional comedy act (Jack Sparrow anyone). Depp's Hatter is not so much mad as he is completely insane, fluctuating between eccentric buffoon to psychotic sociopath with little to no provocation and its completely enthralling, if a little unsettling at times.

If there is a fault with this film it is its misguided thrid act, in which the film becomes just another action/fantasy flick and not a particuarly good one. By this point I cared about the characters on screen so it didn't fall into Eragon territory but it certainly wasn't Lord of the Rings either. It's hardly new ground for Burton either, all the usual devices and conventions of his previous work are here, the german expressionism visuals are once again present and the themes of uneasy adolesance are all things we've seen before and done better in his earlier films, I.e Edward Scissorhands. Also,I can confidently say that fans of the original litrature will be horrified by what I'm sure are tweaks put there to appease Burton & Hollywood the most obvious victim, being the dialogue, the sort of things that turned me against his earlier screen adaptaion of Charlie & The chocolate Factory.

However, the film was a tremendously fun experience for me and a far richer experience then James Cameron's overblown Avatar.

and the pretentious star rating is

****/*****