Alice in Wonderland: Review By ParkWilliams

Tim Burton's new take on Alice in Wonderland is an exciting and charming, albeit somewhat lacking, adventure through a visionary world that manages to be everything it promised but little more. I would like to be able to say that Burton proves a to be a great choice in bringing Wonderland to life, but that would be unfair seeing as I've regrettably never got around to actually reading Lewis Caroll's original books. I will say that Burton does prove to be a great creator of his version of Wonderland and manages to impressively keep the world in scale relative to the constantly size changing Alice, which is no small task when you take into account the sheer size of the world and it's high population of plant and animal life. I can't tell you how good the 3D is or isn't because I decided to just go in 2D after reading a bit about the let down in comparison to the hype. Don't worry, because the movie is perfectly fine in 2D and since 3D will always be compared to Avatar I'm pretty sure it would be a letdown even if it was really good 3D.

Alice in Wonderland captures the beauty of imagination in a charming and time proven fashion. It's a traditional Good vs. Evil tale with an evil tyrant to be overthrown by a reluctant hero who journeys to discover herself backed by a cast of companions who are sometimes inspiring, occasionally critical, and often humorous, but always ready to help every step of the way. It's a charming, well presented, narrative that is easily predictable but is still enjoyable despite this.

Johnny Depp proves to be just as good as he's ever been, adopting a variation on a character type that he's played many times before and learned to play incredibly well; needless to say Depp pretty much steals the show. Helena Bonham Carter is funny in a humorously tragic sort of way and Mia Wasikowska is competent but mildly underwhelming. The characters are charming and generally well presented though occasionally redundant and there's a good juggling between them all for the most part, though we see a little too much of Depp's Mad Hatter than is really necessary.

Alice in Wonderland manages to be exactly what I expected; it's not Burton's best film, but not his worst either, and he manages to make it enjoyable without stepping over himself in an attempt to be ambitious. It's traditional and predictable but well presented, enjoyable, and best of all entertaining.