Alice in Wonderland [Blu-ray] [2010] [US Import]

Pretty shocked at this, I wouldnt say its one of Tim Burtons best (possibly something to do with Disney interfering). Performances from Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway were pretty convincing. Partly felt like a rewrite of American McGee's Alice.

My expectations were high. Too high perhaps. That much is true. ..But as a fan of Tim Burton and someone who thoroughly enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I feel as though my expectations were justified.
The Tim Burton/Johnny Depp mixing pot is something that so consistently delivers quality cinema. Alice in Wonderland it seems though, is the exception to this rule.
The original book is of course enchanting, the yester-year Disney cinema offering is magical, but this new fangled all singing all dancing affair just doesn't cut it.
It's a big long gimmick really. The special effects are very good, that can't be denied by anyone - the boffins and geeks who were in-charge of the cgi deserve high praise indeed. And furthermore, the actors play their parts flawlessly. It's a well crafted movie, expertly put together by a veteran film maker.
But it lacks any real magic. It's just TOO polished. Too slick, too perfect, too shiny. It has no character, no depth, no soul. And much like so many recent modern movies, it feels like a technical exercise rather than a piece of story telling.

In summary, this is not for me. It's sugar-coated entertainment for the masses. This type of film-making clearly has an audience, but sadly I'm not part of it. I prefer my cinema with a few less bells and whistles.

I missed the film at the cinema because performances were booked up weeks in a row. For some bizarre reason, Disney doesn't allow you to buy the Blu-Ray separately. Here, I will cover two issues: whether Blu-ray is really better than DVD and if the film is any good.

I was unsure about the benefits of Blu-ray. With this combo pack, I was able to freeze duplicate scenes by playing the discs in my Blu-ray player and DVD recorder. What struck me was how the picture with DVD was squashed. The country house in the beginning looks smaller and less detailed. With Blu-ray there is more detail on screen and the whole of my large screen TV was filled. However, my DVD recorder lacks upscaling and so when the DVD version was played back on my Blu-ray player, I have to say the differences seemed less obvious and the DVD picture was much improved. I think the benefits of Blu-ray are better realised on a very large screen (40-50 inches) rather than on my 32 inch screen. Considering this, I think I will stay with DVDs, except for the odd special film. At least until prices come down generally (this pack is selling for nearly £25 at HMV!).

I have one complaint with the operation of the Blu-ray disc. Loading of the movie can take a while. I have a new player but whenever I stopped the movie for a few minutes to take a break, I had to play the movie from the very start (eg "select language") and then, after a few minutes, it picked up from the last point where I stopped. This was very frustrating. As this is an enhanced disc with many extra features (like Blu-ray Live) , it is possible that older players will need to a firmware update to access the features of this disc properly, according to the on-screen warning . This is a repeat of when the early generation DVD players had problems playing enhanced discs such as The Matrix.

Tim Burton is known for his subversive nature of his films, but as the source material is subversive already, there was not much for him really to subvert this time round. Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter looks rather disturbing as a cross between a clown and the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. His English accent is excellent; so is that of the actress who plays Alice (the extras reveal her to be American). Like David Lynch, Tim Burton has a group of actors he likes to use for all of his flims. Though Johnny Depp is good here, I don't like how every Burton film has to have him and Helen B. Carter (who incidentally makes an uninspiring queen).
Basically, the film is not a retelling of the classic childrens' story but a continuation - Alice is now in her late teens. Whilst the early sequences in Wonderland are stunning, the innovation of the background imagery is not maintained and it often reminded me of the alien landscapes in the most recent Star Wars trilogy. To be honest, I wish we saw more of the people at Alice's surprise engagement party, because there is very little character development elsewhere, and the people in the real world deserve a film all to themselves. The surreal elements of the original story are missing for most of the movie and the second half of the movie just turns into a standard good vs evil story.

To sum this film up, it is not complex or dark enough for adults, and too scary in parts for young children. Like so many films coming out of Hollywood at the moment, it is not a classic and is very much style over content, perhaps intended to be seen in 3D to enjoy it properly.