Alice in Wonderland review

Having missed this film at the cinemas I was thrilled to be able to buy it on DVD/Blu-ray combo, (the great thing about Blu-ray being that most people I know don't have it yet so they can't come over and ask to borrow my DVDs! hahahahaha!) I even went out of my way to get the blah blah exclusive, (sorry Amazon, your still my number one choice as blah blah customer service sucks!) which included a pack or Alice in Wonderland Cards! Anyway I sat down to watch my blu-ray version on the PS3, expecting to be blown away with Tim Burtoness and Johnny Depp-Boham Carterness as in Sweeney Todd, (which is frickin awesome by the way) but it just fell flat and didn't happen. :(

The only thing reminiscent of Tim Burton in this movie is of course his wife, (Carter) and best bud Depp and of course the overall visual style is very Tim Burton, but the story-line? well that was a different matter, I had the feeling that some Disney executives wrote it and then just got Burton to add his flair and name to it to make sure it sold, I mean as soon as this "Jabberwocky" came into it, I was thinking, "what the hell?" the Caterpillar wasn't as flamboyant as the cartoon version and therefore not as memorable or engaging, although I loved the voicing and felt he was a good choice, (I don't know his name but I knew his voice straight away as being the gothic looking teacher guy from Happy Potter), The Red Queen, (Carter) was brilliant, I felt she stood out the most and the humor she injected into the role was perfect, I loved her character and felt she even out-did Mr Depp, which is a definite first. Depp who I love don't get me wrong, was good, but I felt he should have been a bit more nutty and whacky like the Cartoon character was, instead he came off as being more of a mentally disturbed patient on the run or something, indeed I felt sorry for him and wanted to reach out and touch him at times where he seemed to be a lost little boy, I didn't quite understand why his accent kept changing from his usual to a scottish accent? maybe he was trying to depict a schizophrenic? I don't really know, but it didn't quite "fit" for me, I would have liked a bit more development or background knowledge as to why he was the way he was, or maybe I am just searching a bit too deep for a light hearted family flick?
I didn't feel this need for explanation with the red queen however, maybe it is because his character hinted at things but never fully explained them whereas her character was less complex.
The two "fatboys" played by little britains Lucas something or other were great and he was "perfect" for the role, I would have liked to see more of his little britain zaniness brought to the role though.
The white queen drove me mad! In fact I don't even want to watch the film again just for her part, the way she moved around with her hands in the iar drove me mad, and I didn't see the point of her? I would rather have just seen a remake of the cartoon actually and not this sequel attempt although other reviewers have said the opposite, I think a remake would have been alot better, with all the known characters and plot-lines, it would have been exciting to watch and think: "Oh this is the bit where she...." or: "gosh I remember this bit where the hedgehog does this" etc etc.
And the crochet game would have been fun to watch had it been implemented into the film a bit more...
I liked alot about the film, I liked the visual style, the effects were excellent and not one bit jarring as they are in alot of CGI heavy films, I wish it had flowed more and fit together that little bit better, it's a shame cause you can't shake the feeling that executives were thinking about how much money they could make on alice in wonderland merchandise, (the original cartoon which was £6.99 has now gone up to £25.99!) I'd watch it if you are a Burton/Depp and Boham-Carter fan, but if not then I doubt you will get much from it- unless you are just in awe of the special effects and forget about story-line, character development etc as alot of people tend to do these days, then watch if for the effects if you must! but for story, plot, narrative and character development? I'm afraid it simply fails miserably and doesn't make much sense.

I would get the cartoon or some of Burtons other stuff instead whilst waiting for the price of this to drop to £4.99 or less, cause all your doing is putting money into the Disney fat cats wallets, they don't care about entertaining you or bringing a much loved disney cartoon to life! they just want money to buy fancier cars whilst we sit and waste 2 hours with this, don't get me wrong I love Tim Burton films, Johnny Depp and even Burtons wife, and I never thought I'd give a Burton film a negative review, I just don't feel this is a "true" Burton feature. Try nightmare before christmas, corpse bride, sweeney tood and edward scissorhands instead. but do watch this if like me you have seen every other Burton film and need something new, but I wouldn't pay out the current price tag if I could turn back time, I'd wait, it's not worth the £17.99 I paid for it at all. (And I never say that! I am one who often pays out alot for films, they cost millions to make so owning them for £20 isn't a big deal for me if it's a good film and worth it!)