ALICE IN WONDERLAND Post Release - Page 3

Yeah, Christopher Lee's one or two lines is laughable. He was probably in the recording studio for fifteen minutes, tops.

Remember when she's talking to the catepillar right before the flashback of her first visit? The catepillar says something to the effect of, "You dumbass girl, you're so stupid that you called it Wonderland on your first visit", implying that the place is actually called Underland, and has been Underland well before the RQOH's takeover.

Speaking of, when exactly did the takeover happen? I noticed that during the Hatter's flashback to the Jabberwock attacking the White Queen's party, he didn't have his crazy look that he sports for the duration of the film. He got that way after the attack. However, he had his crazy look during the flashback of Alice's first visit, so I guess that the attack has already happened when Alice made her initial visit. The timeline of those events is never stated, but for discussion's sake, let's say that the RQOH was in charge then, and the heroes all knew that Alice was prophesized to end her reign. Why didn't the good guys just keep her ass captive in WonderUnderland when she first arrived? Hang onto her until she's of age to fight the Jabberwock! If they have that scroll thing that tells them that she's the one to do this, why the hell did they ever let her leave to begin with? Why would they risk her leaving and not coming back? And even if you say that the scroll foretold the future and thus foretold her return, that doesn't explain why they've been frantically trying to find her. If they knew she was coming back for this day, why bother worrying for a second?

Something tells me that I'm thinking about this way more than Burton did.

I think that this sums up my reaction towards the film pretty perfectly. Burton doesn't seem to have considered what touches would be best for making this film work. He seems only to have employed the stylistic flairs and trademarks that have failed to make the last few films he's made work as well.

I for one, really liked the Jabberwock. The design is pretty much the classic Tenniel illustration minus the buck teeth. I thought the effects work on him worked, as it made him look like a Ray Harryhausen stop-motion monster, which I adore. That and the Cheshire Cat were the only things I liked.

Note: I'm not saying I actually think the Jabberwock/Nazgul fight was any good, just that I totally dug the effects work on the Jabberwock.

It'd be ok if it was bigger. WAY bigger.

Oh wow this movie was crap. No effort apparently went into it, except from the visual effects people - yet the movie still is, as Devin Faraci noted, ugly as fuck and unpleasant in a bad way. I loved Sweeney Todd and I'm almost ready to write off Burton completely. Dumb film. Real damned stupid. Alice wanders into a bunch of setpieces and that's it. She doesn't have anything to do in the film, aside from accepting that Underland isn't a dream. Ugh. I just...bad fucking film. That's all.

Just saw this last night and agree with most everyone else in that the film is boring and useless.

And, it seems official now: Johnny Depp is the new Robin Williams. Tiresome and undisciplined.

On DVD June 1st. That's pretty damn quick.

Yea I agree with pretty much all you guys, quite boring and pointless.

I'm no big fan of Burton (love his art, usually dislike his films) and when I heard that he was doing "Alice in Wonderland" I thought that this might be the very best combination of director and material I ever heard of.

Sadly I was wrong... Very, very wrong.

A film so bad words can't describe it. That dance Depp did at the end was horrible.

Hook was more enjoyable than this abomination.

So whats in Burton's future? More remakes and reboots unless he hooks up with a talented screenwriter?

Also whats with all the pasty ass pale people? Go out and get some sun this isn't Sweeney Todd.

Ah, come on now! It's England. Even Love Actually has pasty ass pale people.

Fuck that I watched Love Actually I liked Love Actually no sir Alice in Wonderland is no Love Actually.

Apparently this has crossed the $1 billion mark and is now the 6th highest-grossing movie of all time.

Fuck you very much, humanity.

There is no justice.

Just high grosses for shitty movies.

I didn't hate it as much as you all did but it was still bad. Not POTA bad. I did find myself zoning out during quite a bit of it though.

Just saw this for the first time today. Bad. Boring. There was nothing special or original in any of the Wonderland scenes. The lead actress Mia Wasikowska is a beautiful girl but she just wonders around the entire film with a vapid expression on her face.

 

1) The Cheshire Cat was the standout effect though. It at least looks and sounds exactly as it should be.

2) Hope Christopher Lee managed to screw Burton out of a large paycheck for those 15-20 words he had in the entire film.

3) WTF was that Michael Jackson dance the Mad Hatter was doing at the end?

I don't have anything to add, really, after watching this on Netflix Instant; this was ugly, soulless, and an utter failure on every level. Concept, production design (! - should be Burton's forte), writing, acting. I'm not inherently opposed to sequels to classic film adaptations of literature* but this work has neither the candy-colored, demented charm of the Disney adaptation (probably the strangest animated feature the mouse ever made, tbh) nor the dark heart of, say, Jan Svankmajer's wonderful 1988 stop-motion film ALICE. Rather it splits the difference, tosses in a bit of LOTR and on-the-nose feminist themes (probably the contribution of Woolverton) and ends up feeling like a parody of a Burton/Depp/Carter/Elfman film, which is Burton's forte these days, sadly.

 

Not sure if I can say that this is worse than PLANET OF THE APES, which was one of the worst theater experiences of my young life, as I was eleven at the time and a big fan of the Heston films, but it was excruciatingly bad and I am utterly mystified not that people saw this - the Burton/Depp/Carter/Elfman combo clearly has drawing power, for better or worse - but that they actually loved it, a sentiment I've heard expressed from several mainstream cinemagoers. Sigh.

 

I'll say that I thought CHARLIE was mediocre and SWEENEY TODD and BIG FISH decent-to-good even though I didn't personally connect to them the way I wanted/expected to. Burton certainly needs to stay far, far away from remakes, though I wonder if he's still got a really excellent film somewhere in him (the last one of these being ED WOOD, imo, which is just lovely from all angles.)

 

 

*such as Walter Murch's underrated RETURN TO OZ. Actually, that's the only example I can think of off the top of my head that is sort of comparable, being both a sequel to the 1939 film and an adaptation of a few of the books in the Oz series, but I love that film and feel that it captures the spirit of Frank Baum's books without tarnishing any memories one might have of Fleming's wonderful WIZARD OF OZ adap that we all know and love. Basically, it's what this version of ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND should have been like.