Alice in Wonderland: BD Review
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Page 1 of 3 Buena Vista / 108 Minutes / 2010 / Rated PG / Street Date: June 1, 2010
It made sixteen katrillion dollars at the box office, so in the eyes of Hollywood, I understand that this lowly writer's disdain for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland may not mean much, but if there's one thing that this exceptionally beautiful Blu-ray Disc edition of the film proves, it's that if you were to take the CGI bells and whistles away from this Alice, you'd be left with a limp morsel of cinematic push-off that the Jabberwocky himself wouldn't bother to stop and investigate. Alice in Wonderland sports a sensational cast, a well-rendered faux-3D digital landscape, and an overall narrative feel that leaves Alice's travels down the rabbit-hole so ho-hum and blase that only viewers tripping on things one can't exactly buy at a cinema concession stand would find much merit in. I must admit that part of my personal bias is that I'm a director guy, and Tim Burton has helmed some of the best popular films of the modern age. Look at the density of vision in something like Edward Scissorhands, the gleeful inanity of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure or (my number one fave) the lilting, reality-swap emotional nuance of Ed Wood - at his best, Burton is a king among kings, a director who is able to find glimmers of the impossibly beautiful in the oddest of sources. But since the fever-hallucination of Mars Attacks!, the guy hasn't made a movie that hit with the same thump. Sweeney Todd had moments of retro goth brilliance to it, but that picture - as a 'fairly good one' - is as close as he's gotten to reclaiming the aesthetic glory of his earlier films.
I bring this up because Alice in Wonderland is a movie directed by CGI effects supervisors. For example, the greatest visual concept in this Alice is Helena Bonham Carter's head - as the Queen of Hearts, she sports a waifish body and the kind of Sputnik-sized head that Lewis Carroll himself might not have even imagined. It's a fantastic concept, but what it's missing is vision: Cineastes (myself included) have accused Burton of auto-piloting his last few films, and this singular conceit is endemic of that conspiracy theory - it's easy to imagine Burton coming up with an idea like this in a story meeting, then leaving the intricacies of its presentation to the post-production boys. In short, what Alice in Wonderland needs is more Burton. Sure, Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter is grand, and it's a treat to see Anne Hathaway in anything, but for those scratching their heads as to what a visual artist like Burton could do with a richly hallucinogenic work like Alice in Wonderland, this end result film is all filler, no substance. It definitely looks and sounds like the big-money, big-promotion behemoth it was (it's already a $300 million+ earner), but there's no doubt in my mind that after the curious take a gander at this wet-noodle exercise in mediocrity, the film will all but completely fade from the cultural radar. I still hold onto hope that Time Burton has another great one in him, but with pictures like Alice in Wonderland, my trust in his vision continues to erode. |
Comments (6)
It is a USA version, it should have them! I