Alice in Wonderland (2010)

For some strange reason, Tim Burton went from a visionary director with quirky ideas to a director who tends to play it safe by revisiting well known properties. He failed miserably with his take on 'Planet of the Apes', but maybe this one is a horse of a different colour?

Well, it is a bit of a mixed bag, to be honest. The idea that a now 19-year-old Alice returns to Wonderland and discovers that all is not as it seems (as it actually never has been, but hey), is pretty nifty. She has to end the reign of the Red Queen and grow to independence. It is a neat idea, but the execution could have been better, something you realize upon repeated viewings.

The good thing about this version is the fact that Burton is a visualist, and in style and visuals he never lets anyone down. It looks gorgeous in that Burton-kind-of-way, and even though it is a little more colourful than his usual signature, it still has that fun morbidity. Let's not forget that the original was a little on the morbid and kooky side to begin with, so in that respect, this sequel of sorts is a good idea. You'll get a ton of classic characters, slightly reimagined, but still retaining the bulk of their original cartoon counterpart. Except a lot of the characters are now a lot nicer to Alice, whereas in the cartoon (and book, for that matter) they were often rude and downright nasty.

Alas, that is where the fun stops, I'm afraid. The story is bland and makes little to no sense and the characters are so one-dimensional it becomes tedious. The bizarre thing is that this time around the Mad Hatter is more of a main character, but whether that's because Johnny Depp portrays him or because the character of Alice is so flat, I have no idea. The latter is not Mia Wasikowska's fault. She was rather inexperienced at acting, and it shows. She breathes no life into the role and you're never invested in her adventures. Too bad, really. But you can't fault her for it. The direction is very much by the numbers, which is odd for Burton, but maybe he has just given up on being weirdly creative.

Let's put it this way: you'll watch this for the visuals, but that is it. Unfortunately that makes this a very, very mediocre film, which is all the worse considering the talent that is behind it. This could have been so much more.

We're all mad down here? Not really this time.