Movie Review - Alice of Wonderland

Yesterday I took time to go and see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. It was a delightful experience in which I ducked a few times and let out small screams a couple of times as things got flung at me. I most certainly find sitting in the middle of the 3D theatres the best option if you are going to see them - no distortion at all.
Anyways, my comments regarding this movie is of course the acting of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter - they are superb. Johnny Depp, although there were times Jack the Pirate could be seen in his moves, he is so believable as the mad hatter. Helena the same, what a Red Queen. You believed she wanted "Off with his head". I thought Anne Hathaway was a bit flighty for the White Queen. I wanted her to stop flinging her hands around, it was like she did not know what to do with them. Other than the hand though I thought the movie quite brilliant. The scenes were magnificent, the combination of humans and animation was like there were no animation. The wonderland world was real, it was a place were animals spoke and personally I liked how they got to change Alice's clothes as she shrank or grew big. (My friend pointed out she was watching the shoes - which I did not think of and they had some difficulty with that - oh well I didn't watch the shoes so did not notice).
I also recognized the hand of Tim Burton in the Red Soldiers......how Tim Burtonish, evil looking they were. If I had not known it was a Tim Burton movie, I perhaps would not have recognized his usual 'dark' side which comes out, which I smiled to myself when I saw the Red Soldiers, oh yes Tim was there.
All in all I was glad I saw it, glad I saw it in 3D and would recommend it for a wonderful few hours to go down the rabbit hole. I did not read the books as a child, but remember something so I knew the story and remembered seeing something way back....another movie perhaps? I was thrilled as to how the story was written to show how the 19year old Alice - who was very good - was returning to Wonderland, but I wanted Johnny Depp to show up on the boat as she left at the end as a 'real' person, knowing the love between the mad hatter and reality was transcended. I guess I'm the eternal romantic ... both my friend Vida and I wanted to see that. Otherwise the story was well integrated.
I would give this movie 4 stars out of 5.



Norma Cowie
250 490 0654
Email: norma@normacowie.com