“Alice in Wonderland” (2010) 2/5
This is precisely what happens when you give someone like Tim Burton too much creative control (and that goes for pretty much every one of his movies over the past decade with the exception of maybe “Big Fish”). He is such a talented visual artist, but such a shitty storyteller. Too bad he can’t pick some better writers, or the studios can’t make him. Here is the Burton formula as far as I can tell:
- Make Johnny Depp and/or Helena Bonham Carter look and act as bizarre and/or gothic and/or dark as possible.
- Somehow manage to convince some other very talented actors to be in your movie.
- String together some eye-popping set pieces with some incredible special effects.
- Pay some cursory attention to the story and characters.
- Call it a day.
The other problem with this movie is that it has joined the long line of fantasy impostors that have tried to emulate (poorly, at that) the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with some nonsense about Alice being destined to slay the Jabberwocky to save the people of Wonderland. Gone is much of the whimsy of the original book. I think I’m done with Burton until I hear otherwise.
