186 out of 186 people found the following review helpful:

pointless reviews

A Customer from Cheltenham, 17th September, 2009

So, this film isnt even out of production therefore i find the reviews to be utterly pointless and without merit. Wait until the movie is released before posting comments based on the trailer.

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45 out of 46 people found the following review helpful:

was it ever a childs story

stanthemann from , 30th September, 2009

Alive in wonderland has always had a quirky style to it, so hey what a great choice to have Tim Burton as the director, with the stlye and flare that this mad cap stlye of story needs, if you have ever read the orignal story, it is not your normal childs story, containg much mental qustions from the norm. Johny Depp is a spot on choice, being able to pull off that mad cap air about him, fits the bill to this story line, with the humour to take the edge off, i am looking forward to seeing this mad cap adventure!

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25 out of 26 people found the following review helpful:

I know...

A Customer from Edinburgh, 5th November, 2009

it is just a trailer but yet it is sight for sore eyes. With the end of the year coming all the latest releases seem to be oscar friendly with actor's clawing too try and win their own. With this Alice and Wonderland giving a new spin I fell very interested too see. With Johnny Depp at his energetic best and a new Australian actress playing the main it will be a good watch. The only thing I am dissapionted with is that all Timburton's film's seem to be mostly CGI now. If you go back to Sleepy Hollow and such his film making was very different. Now he has a bigger budget and supposes he wants to flirt with the technology he can get. Over all I have to say it look's rather promosing.

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9 out of 9 people found the following review helpful:

Alice

Filez from , 1st March, 2010

I managed to get into an advance screening of this and I really did enjoy this, its not everyones cup of tea but if you like Tim Burton then you are on to a winner.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Tedious and tedious-er

Daniel Pollard from Manchester, England, 17th March, 2010

The joy of Lewis Carroll’s timeless fairytale, is Alice meandering through a crazy fantasy world and bumping into various weird people who try their best to ridicule and hurt her feelings. Tim Burton’s Alice also bumps into the same bunch of misfits but, most importantly, they’re incredibly nice to her. The other main difference in Burton’s film is Alice, now returning to Wonderland, is on a Disney style quest to kill a dragon and do some other really dull Harry Potter, Golden Compass, Lion the Witch and Wardrobe type stuff. This quest aspect of the narrative really is monotonous and comes complete with characters repeatedly explaining the plot to a bland and lifeless Alice (Mia Wasikowska). On her quest she meets the ubiquitous Mad Hatter, played by Johnny Depp doing a terrible pastiche performance, similar to his dreadful Jack Sparrow in the Pirates films, which is not funny or emotionally involving. We also get to meet a huge variety of CGI creatures, that we neither care about, or are scared by. By the time the film comes to its Joan of Arc climax, with Alice battling a dragon on the turrets of a castle in full body armour, I had lost all involvement in the film. After sitting through this dreadful mess I think it’s about time Depp and Burton ended their working relationship. They’ve made a plodding and tedious Alice for the Harry Potter generation, but one that’s made even worse knowing Burton’s back-catalogue of masterpieces such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissor Hands and Ed Wood.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Style over substance

Amelie from , 16th March, 2010

Love Alice, love Tim Burton, love Depp. This film just had to be good didn't it? Alas, no!!
The story, slight as it is, is unutterably pointless - not bearing a great deal of resemblance to the Lewis Carroll original and adding nothing by way of re-imagining, other than in the visual sense. Yes, the visuals are excellent, the style definitively Burton, confirming once again the claim to his being a recognised 'auteur' - but whatever happened to telling a ripping yarn - this tale is so tired it I nodded off at several points only to be awoken by Helena Bonham Carter's frequent bawling 'Off with her/his/it's head!' Yes, the characters have nominally been plucked from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, but in a very haphazard way - they lose all their charm and are presented as a freak show. Of course this is Tim Burton after all, and if only he'd made a more grown up film that hinted at the possible expressionistic 'characters within' of the 'real people' Alice encounters at the grand party at the beginning of the film, then this may have been a cracking social commentary about marriage brokering, the oppression and subjugation of women as mere producers of heirs and even a consideration of individual action versus predestination. However, and it has to be accepted that with a PG certificate, deeper adult subtext is likely to be lost at the expense of dramatic battles and child pleasing special effects, you can't help feeling that Burton wanted a movie where Depp could be allowed a free rein with yet another zany overdressed madcap character, Bonham Carter could vent some of her possible mid-life angst in demanding instant decapitations and he could once more revisit his dark Gothic landscapes. I came away feeling that this was sloppy storytelling and poor entertainment in order to furnish the multiplexes with another eye-popping 3D moneyspinner - and yes, I did see it in 2d format but that makes not a jot of difference to whether a movie functions coherently. This was just moving wallpaper - albeit beautifully designed!

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1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Not the original story, instead a sequel to Alice in Wonderland

olliemyers from , 15th March, 2010

OK this film is not what you maybe think it is going to be. It is NOT the story of Alice in Wonderland but more Tim Burton stealing the world of Alice in Wonderland and making up a sequel to the original Alice in Wonderland with Alice being 19 years old and forgetting her original visits to wonderland. For that reason it should have been named something else. However I love Time Burton, his films really are unique and this isn't any difference. CGI is top-notch and the voices cast work well. Matt Lucas is funny as Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum, Barbara Windsor as the dormouse is funny, and Steven Dry as the cheshire cat is well thought out with the cheshire being witty. I did enjoy this film. Tim Burton never fails to go all out on the art and costumes.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

*** May contain spoilers ***

Alice please look in the mirror.

msbettybelle from from London, 15th March, 2010

Tim Burton is the Director of choice for insane, surreal, gothic, and macabre films that revolve around fantasy imagery, amassing a fantastic cast and bringing out the most wonderful and bizarre characterizations, Usually. This time with his adaptation of 'Alice in wonderland' which eventually leads us through the looking glass, borders on a plot that has a predictable, formulaic (hobbitesque ) romp. Burton set's Alice a quest taking inspiration from Carroll’s poem the Jabberwocky from the second Alice book. If the confusion of the literary references is not enough (for I would have liked the inherent darkness in the first two books to have shone through standing alone) the world that was created by Burton seems somewhat lacking in the fantastical capabilities of this generally creative and inventive film maker. The scenery was disappointing and the whole effect of the film left me with a diluted sense of what the imaginary world could be like. I expected more from your imagination Mr. Burton. The red queens castle was a Disney, Hamptoncourt, stately home hybrid that lacked all traces of the imagery I thought I might get. Look closely and you can find references to King Henry the 8th on the castle walls and the pomp with which Bonham-Carter reenacts a character from a British comedy show is a bit of a lazy giveaway, I wonder what Mr. Fry the Cheshire cat has to say? A personal favorite of mine the CGI did justice, and it's lucky Fry's voice carried it although still a little thin. Alice could have been more headstrong or venerable but in the end it seemed like a middle of the road characterization for a bland performance. Tweedle Dum and Dee were fine, but unfortunately just another Matt Lucas attempt in the guise of one of the better, darker visual CGI Characters. Hathaway's white queen was annoying, showing a few moments of strength the parody seemed only to highlight how the role perhaps would have better been played. Johnny Deep’s Mad Hatter was tinged with a stroke of genius in costume and visual design. Although he tended to remind me of a very strange Elijah Wood. The characterization was poor however and his performance could have been better. The swap of accents seemed no more than a cheap attempt to highlight schizophrenic change in character without actually having to think about making the Hatter actually mad. Elfman's soundtrack was as always good and really helped to lift the film. However I felt that it was slow paced and lost it's way at times with the story being nothing more than a grouping of characters that did not quite reach it's full potential. As viewed as a film without the story we know so well it did attempt to be different and I appreciated that. It was not the sweet story usually expected from Disney and I loved the fact that it tried to break the barriers placed on other Alice adaptations. The added story of Alice as a 19 year old British pawn in societies game was an interesting choice. The development of her character at the end of the film did appeal and as a comment on the social structure gave a nod to opening up the film within a wider historical context. Sadly bound on a boat for China the whole story left me reeling. It tried to hard and the ending seemed to take Alice away from the revolutionary and into the murky depths of British imperialism. As an update of the story for 21st centaury viewers I found it disappointing.

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