Alice in Wonderland [DVD] [2010]
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #39 in DVD
- Released on: 2010-06-04
- Rating: Parental Guidance
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 - 1.78:1
- Formats: Anamorphic, Colour, PAL, Widescreen
- Original language: English
- Number of discs: 1
- Running time: 104 minutes
Customer Reviews
What was all the fuss about?
The film seemed very rushed to me. You had no idea what they meant when they said "it's not the real Alice" and that was never truly explained. The story moved very quickly without creating any empathy for the characters - it all seemed very shallow and with such a great cast you expect magnificence, but this was far from it.
I remember seeing great reviews which I cannot understand at all. Disappointed when this could have been such an amazing remake.
Avoid
First of all, I'd like to say that in general I love Tim Burton and Johnny Depp films and their quirkiness. Sleepy Hollow is my favourite. Well structured, quirky and you knew what was going on. Buy it if you don't have it. Right, got that out of the way.
There will be some spoilers below, but really, you shouldn't care.
There was only one sole reason for making this poor excuse for Alice in Wonderland and that was to find an oddball character in literature and have Johnny Depp play him. That character turned out to be the Mad Hatter. That's it. Nothing else mattered to Tim Burton. The plot, story, characters, letting the audience know what on Earth was happening.......totally inconsequential and bolted on as something annoying that he had to make some effort at. As for Johnny Depp's portrayal of the Mad Hatter, that was as confused as the rest of the film, probably for the same reason - it was an excuse for him to play this role. He's nothing like Lewis Carroll's Mad Hatter, we're seemingly supposed to feel sympathy for him, he performs some embarrassing dance for some reason at the end that again seemed to have been made up as the film went along and for some reason he has a Scottish accent that drifts in and out for no apparent reason other than Johnny seemed to forget what he was doing.
Helena Bonham-Carter's portrayal of the Queen of Hearts was intriguing at first, and then she just started to sound like a really annoying child with a large head on a small body.
As for the film itself, I watched it twice and still couldn't work out what was happening. Was it a remake? Was it a sequel? We're told throughout the film that this is the wrong Alice, but it's never explained to us what that means other than some half-hearted attempt around halfway through. The ending was obviously made up at the last minute with Alice bizarrely donning some body armour, slaying a beast we simply know nothing about and then the Mad Hatter doing some stupid dance once she won.
I can't believe there are some people giving this five stars, but then again they're probably also people who think the Lord of the Rings is brilliant and will be treasured for decades to come. Perhaps a case of I expected it to be good therefore it must be? I expected this to be good, but it's not.
Not for everyone..
My expectations were high. Too high perhaps. That much is true. ..But as a fan of Tim Burton and someone who thoroughly enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I feel as though my expectations were justified.
The Tim Burton/Johnny Depp mixing pot is something that so consistently delivers quality cinema. Alice in Wonderland it seems though, is the exception to this rule.
The original book is of course enchanting, the yester-year Disney cinema offering is magical, but this new fangled all singing all dancing affair just doesn't cut it.
It's a big long gimmick really. The special effects are very good, that can't be denied by anyone - the boffins and geeks who were in-charge of the cgi deserve high praise indeed. And furthermore, the actors play their parts flawlessly. It's a well crafted movie, expertly put together by a veteran film maker.
But it lacks any real magic. It's just TOO polished. Too slick, too perfect, too shiny. It has no character, no depth, no soul. And much like so many recent modern movies, it feels like a technical exercise rather than a piece of story telling.
In summary, this is not for me. It's sugar-coated entertainment for the masses. This type of film-making clearly has an audience, but sadly I'm not part of it. I prefer my cinema with a few less bells and whistles.
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