[review] - Alice in Wonderland
Mar. 6th, 2010 05:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lightcastleWell, it is Tim Burton doing Disney, so it is very pretty and rather tame.
I really wanted to like this more. I'm fond of Burton and Depp and the rest of the cast is full of wonderfulness. (Voices of Alan Rickman and Stephen Fry!) But it is just a bit too ham-handed and full of missed opportunities for me. I get that it is a Disney film and so they had to probably tone down the scariness potential and make sure things were very clear concerning the message, but it was still a bit disappointing to me.
One thing that annoyed me was the whole "it is a sequel, but not" aspect. It is made clear she was here before, but whether anything she did then has any bearing on what's going on now is never made clear and feels like it was part of the original script and then simply forgotten. It's hard to say, but I found it distracting. Especially concerning the whole prophecy angle, which almost always tends to get on my nerves.
Alice herself is wonderful and I quite enjoyed her performance (it doesn't hurt that she looks good wielding a sword, but then I might be biased towards willowy blonds wielding swords). The Cheshire Cat is handled well effects-wise but isn't nearly spooky enough for my tastes. And while I am always happy to see feminist themes, it is rather ham-handed in how it goes about it.
The prophecy thing bugged me, as I said, and I think partly it was because Alice has a wonderful moment of insisting she isn't guided by a prophecy and isn't simply going to do what everyone tells her she should or must do. This parallels nicely with her life outside Wonderland and I really thought they were going to go that way, but they don't, which felt like a massively wasted opportunity.
It's worth seeing as a fun way to pass the time, but none of the 3D effects are so brilliant that you MUST see it in that format, or even a theatre, really.
Also, there are many fabulous clothes which I would want to see on people.
However, seeing it in 3D might be worth it for the Tron:Legacy trailer which made my little geek heart race with joy.
I really wanted to like this more. I'm fond of Burton and Depp and the rest of the cast is full of wonderfulness. (Voices of Alan Rickman and Stephen Fry!) But it is just a bit too ham-handed and full of missed opportunities for me. I get that it is a Disney film and so they had to probably tone down the scariness potential and make sure things were very clear concerning the message, but it was still a bit disappointing to me.
One thing that annoyed me was the whole "it is a sequel, but not" aspect. It is made clear she was here before, but whether anything she did then has any bearing on what's going on now is never made clear and feels like it was part of the original script and then simply forgotten. It's hard to say, but I found it distracting. Especially concerning the whole prophecy angle, which almost always tends to get on my nerves.
Alice herself is wonderful and I quite enjoyed her performance (it doesn't hurt that she looks good wielding a sword, but then I might be biased towards willowy blonds wielding swords). The Cheshire Cat is handled well effects-wise but isn't nearly spooky enough for my tastes. And while I am always happy to see feminist themes, it is rather ham-handed in how it goes about it.
The prophecy thing bugged me, as I said, and I think partly it was because Alice has a wonderful moment of insisting she isn't guided by a prophecy and isn't simply going to do what everyone tells her she should or must do. This parallels nicely with her life outside Wonderland and I really thought they were going to go that way, but they don't, which felt like a massively wasted opportunity.
It's worth seeing as a fun way to pass the time, but none of the 3D effects are so brilliant that you MUST see it in that format, or even a theatre, really.
Also, there are many fabulous clothes which I would want to see on people.
However, seeing it in 3D might be worth it for the Tron:Legacy trailer which made my little geek heart race with joy.
