Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been directly adapted in no less than 24 movies and television shows. It's inspired premises and episodes of 13 additional TV shows and 22 more films. Tim Burton's 2010 Alice in Wonderland is listed as one of those 22 inspired pieces. I read somewhere that Burton didn't consider his Alice a sequel to the original story. Maybe he meant the term "sequel" didn't explain it enough. Perhaps he meant it's a sequel of sorts that take elements of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and mixes it all together into a story where most of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland took place before this one, but they're calling it by the name they use for most movies that directly adapt the first story only.
Yes, that must be it.
Alice is now 18 and finds herself at a surprise engagement party for the surprise proposal she's about to get in front of a crowd of around 100 people. Taken aback, she runs off to think about her situation and ends up falling down a hole that, you guessed it, leads to Wonderland. She's been there before but doesn't remember it and so she goes through the whole "Eat me." "Drink me." bit before we get to the newer stuff.
The Queen of Hearts (Helena Bonham Carter), who is really an amalgamation of The Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen from the original stories, has taken over Wonderland, turning it into a grisly place where everyone lives in constant fear of death and/or harm to their loved ones. The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) is there to guide Alice because she can save them all from this miserable existence, but only if she's the "right Alice".
And while Depp adds depth to a character that doesn't seem to have much, it should be noted that if he played any other character, that character would have been Alice's guide and he'd have been able to squeeze some sort of depth out of that character too.
The screenplay was written by Linda Woolverton, who has been marked by the media as a "girl-power specialist" due to her work on Disney's Beauty and the Beast. In an interview with The New York Times, Woolverton mentioned that she “did a lot of research on Victorian mores, on how young girls were supposed to behave, and then did exactly the opposite.” That's all fine and dandy even if it's becoming pretty commonplace - the heroine who doesn't follow all of society's rules and finds happiness.
The problem with it in this movie is that Alice is supposed to become a strong, brave, independent woman in order to save the "good guys" in Wonderland, but she's already that person from the beginning. There's not much room for her character to grow and since that's the whole point of her journey... her journey seems almost pointless. Before she gets to Wonderland we already see her eschewing proper clothing, plainly stating her beliefs, questioning others, refusing to conform, doing whatever she thinks is best in the moment, etc. I guess you could say her time in Wonderland reminded her of who she is so she could make a choice in real life that she wouldn't regret. Except that I don't get "reminder" out of this story. It's clearly supposed to be "journey".
So between that and this story being done so many times, this whole movie came off as unnecessary. And that's too bad because the acting was all done well enough, and the visuals are intriguing (even though I thoroughly dislike the concept of shooting in 2D and converting it to 3D in post).
Burton usually brings an interesting spin on things. I hope to see more of his Edward Scissorhands/Corpse Bride/Big Fish side and less of this Planet of the Apes/Alice in Wonderland. If his next project isn't something we've seen 58 other variations on, we're already stepping in the right direction.
Rating: 2/5
Recommended for:People who enjoy talking animals.
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