Review - Alice In Wonderland (3D)

[ltstanfo]

OK, so I finally made the effort to see the new Tim Burton film, "Alice in Wonderland" (3D version).

Summary - Alice goes back to Wonderland (she's a young woman now, about to be married). She's been there before but has no real memories. What she does recall comes only from dreams as a little girl.

The Good - Visually Burton and team should get solid marks for their interpretation of Lewis Carroll's universe. I don't think it is fair to compare it to Avatar (and it's no where near as amazing IMHO) but it serves the same purpose surprisingly well. The book's cast of characters is all there, plus a few more. It's fun to watch with occasional moments of (mildly) scary action coupled with lots of laughs. I easily think this is Burton's best film to date. The casting is first rate. Johnny Depp is brilliant in his role as the Mad Hatter. He really seems to have enjoyed himself, as did Helen Bonham Carter in her role as the Red Queen (and I do not care for Helen in general). I'd also like to thank Burton for casting Anne Hathaway as the White Queen. She obviously had fun working in this film. Let's also not forget Alan Rickman's inclusion in this film as the Blue Caterpillar. Once again Alan proves he can play any role (haha). Finally, I'd like to see if you all can spot Christopher Lee's role. That was a pleasant surprise.

The Bad - Not everything can be perfect. The film drags in several places and I honestly cannot tell if it was intentional or not. The 3D effects are not as visually interesting as Avatar and having seen the other film not too long ago, I find this 3D effort to be somewhat overstated. The effects are there but they just never get my attention the way Avatar did. Nothing ever really "flew out" to me so I probably would have been just as happy with the 2D version. There are also a few scenes where the sound effects / music overpower the cast dialogue. Nothing major but you cannot ignore it either.

The Ugly - Nothing that comes to mind.

Verdict - 7 out of 10. It's a pleasant way to kill a matinee.

Regards,
Ltstanfo

 

[Glaucus]

A fair review. For what it is, it was good and worth seeing.

Some of those who I saw it with felt the 3D effect wasn't all that good, and blamed it on the "new 3D" technology. I however don't think it has anything to do with the technology but more with how it is used. For those who haven't experienced the "new 3D" and remember the "old", they may expect to see more objects to fly crisply in front of their faces as if just inches from their nose. Your not gonna get that in Alice in Wonderland or in Avatar. What kinda threw me at first was that objects that were closer to you then the main actors were out of focus. I remember when I was a kid at Disney land pretty much everything "close" was in focus, and that was to accentuate the 3D effect. Blurring out things that are "close" to you seems weird as it doesn't allow you to clearly see objects floating directly in front of you and that can diminish the 3D effect in a way. But to be honest, I think a feature film has no choice as it can't let 3D steal the show. The focus needs to remain on the main characters and the 3D effect is there to add immersion just like 5.1 audio does (surround speakers are usually designed to have a more diffused sound, often firing side to side instead of straight at your ears). I can see how some may feel like the 3D effect isn't mind blowing, but overall I think it's a plus even if it'll take some time to get used to.