I thought there was a thread on Alice in Woderland but I couldn't find it so I'm posting this here because it's probably the best moview review I've ever done and I'm proud of it:
Just saw Alice In Wonderland last night. I actually thought the scenery was appropriate enough and I espeically like the design of the cheshire cat.
What was ultimately disappointing was the writing. The plot was too "good vs evil" and it was just kind of flat. The story lost all of it's charm as a sort of allegory for being a child in victorian society and had almost none of the word play that was so prevalent in the original books and even to some extent in the Disney cartoon.
I kind of felt like an opportunity was missed to show Wonderland (refusing to call it "underland" here because that's just retarded) from the eyes of a young adult looking back on the fancy of childhood or even as an allegory for the duties of victorian life or something. Instead I got a flat script that could have had really any semi-fantasy setting pasted over it and it wouldn't have been any different.
And that's just the wonderland parts. The "out of wonderland" parts were WORSE. The beginning was jarring as it was a look at Victorian life forced through the lense of contemporary sensibilites like it was some kind of exersize in deliberate anachronism and the end (when she gets back) seems to be setting Alice up as the queen of the Chinese opium trade or something. It's just bizarre.
The performances were great though. I was pleasantly surprised by the actress who played Alice and slightly disappointed by Johnny Depp's Hatter (not whimsically crazy enough and that dance was just stupid). The directing was decent and the special effects had a few mistakes (which can be jarring) but all in all were very well done. Especially, as I said earlier, the cheshire cat.
Overall I'd say it was average. Which is a little disappointing. I was hoping for so much more.
Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs?
Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?
Not one now, to mock your own grinning?