My greatest fear for this movie was the huge threat of no originality that frequently plagues remakes of classics. However for better, or some might argue worse, Burton didn’t stick to the books like they were a religious text.
What I liked:
The story was excellent, it was a merger between Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, with new material. One of my biggest problems with the books, and thus the faithful recreations in movies, is that they were written to be easily red to children. The divisions in the story are so alarmingly strong that you could cut the spine of the book between certain chapters and never know the two belonged together, quite frankly it’s a book of short stories. However what Burton achieves is a contiguous and seamless work, there’s no concrete divisions. It’s fluid, and it’s elegant, which allows the story to be gripping.
Despite many complaints that the movie is lacking emotion (it’s based on a Victorian Era book, are you serious? Lack of emotion? Who’s a moron? Lots of incompetent reviewers working for prestigious newspapers that can’t be bothered to research a movies source material even though 99% of them will have read the book and likely noticed its lack of emotion) I found it to have ample amounts for its source material. Also, I believe some people really need to look up what really falls under the category of ‘emotion’. The movie had great optimism to it, while also providing the overwhelming feel of pessimism in the face of daunting odds. Burton’s Red Queen is the deepest I’ve seen of any Alice creation, she’s consumed by jealousy but reveals she’s actually got good in her but her life and upbringing have guided her away from being good.
Acting was top notch, but then every actor has a credit list the length of my arm so that’s expected. The art and direction were amazing, better even than Burton’s previous works, which is a commendation itself.
What I disliked:
There were a few lines that were hard to understand, this wasn’t a real problem for me (fast spoken lines in a Scottish accent don’t fool me easily, I had to deal with a Scottish substitute teacher in a French lesson in highschool, since then I’ve never had a problem understanding the Scots) as I’m English and have first hand experience with the accents. I know my wife had difficulty with many of the lines, as I was acting as translator. So I can only imagine the trouble some people had. However, as a Brit I’ve had to learn American accents, so I can hardly criticise a movie for making Americans learn accents from Briton. If you expect to sell your culture globally, you should damn well be open to getting some back.
Beyond a few lines people may find inaudible, I can’t criticise the movie on much. Anne Hathaway played the White Queen well, she just looked exceptionally gaunt beyond her usual… gauntness. Something about her bugged me, I’ve still not put my finger on it. It just feels like something’s not right about her as the White Queen. I believe a bit more attention to the make up could have likely resolved it to my satisfaction.
Overall: 9/10
This is the best Alice in Wonderland I’ve seen or read, basically because it feels like an adult story. Even when I originally read Alice in Wonderland, I believe I had surpassed the stories age target. I’ve got about a decade and a half on my original reading of the story, and I doubt a faithful reproduction would have held my attention beyond the first twenty minutes. This kept my attention locked until the finish.
Judgement: Buy it! (see it in theatres if you can)