Alice in Wonderland 3D - Review

I saw this with Karen last night. After a nice meal at Philthy McNasty’s … you just gotta love that name. Amazing burgers by the way.

For me the 3D worked well enough, but Avatar’s was more compelling. The best 3D scene in the entire movie was the frame they used for the early part of the credits. It was rich in color and full in texture. Very, very nice.

The movie enjoyable of course. The plot was apparently a bit of a mix of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, when she is around 20 years old.

Spoiler alert …

They show her when very young and then cut to 20 years old, on the way to her surprise engagement party. This is absolutely a bog-standard technique, where she is to be wed to a lord in waiting and taken care of all her life. Except she’s not impressed. She gets distracted by the white rabbit, who has been searching for her and feels that he has found the right Alice. That proves to be true, as the dreams she has had all her life turn out to be memories. She saves the day and returns at the moment of the proposal, pretty much where everybody had been left waiting, and chooses to follow her father to the orient to set up trade with China instead of taking the easy life. All a bit obvious in the end.

The acting is pretty decent. I enjoyed Jonny Depp more  than I had expected to, largely as the result of his split personality. The Scottish brogue is awesome.

The rabbit, hare, blue caterpillar, the tweedles, all are excellent.

Alice’s part was played by  Mia Wasikowska, a very pretty, if rather girl-next-door looking actress. She maintained the credibility of her character throughout the movie. This was a great casting move in my opinion.

I especially enjoyed the Red Queen and the Knave of Hearts. Helena Bonham Carter has a real pedigree and her skills are unquestionable. Crispin Glover has done a lot of work over the  years, but I recognized him as George McFly from Back to the Future.

One part that did not excite me what the White Queen. She simply seemed stilted. I think this was the gentleness that the part called for, but I didn’t like it. Too normal for this film.

I did not even know that the Cheshire Cat was Stephen Fry until today, when I read some of the other reviews (which are decidedly mixed.) Stephen does a masterful job of calm and subtle here, and his wit is incredibly dry, something I know he does well, but this is the peek of what I’ve seen from him.

I think this managed an excellent cast and a pretty decent movie. I certainly walked out satisfied with my expenditure. It was fun, maybe not quite Avatar fun, but fun all the same.