I liked Alice In Wonderland but i'm convinced it would have been 20 times better.. if Tim had ditched the heavy CG and got the studio to finance a practical effects project. All of the green screen really drains the film of a lot of heft.
Its just dull. A bland story of a 'quirky' character who discovers that theres a prophecy and that they have to fight a big boring cgi monster with an annoying side character who was in the movie too much
Funny. I don't really agree with him at all. I've only seen it in 3D so far, so I can't compare with 2D, but I felt like I was really in the movie. I also like the way Burton and Depp pictured the hatter. He's crazy in a darker way than in the book, which is only fitting, since the film is dark. Overall, I loved it. It wasn't the best film I've ever seen, but I'll definitely buy the DVD.
It didn't really look like a Tim Burton film because it's Alice in Wonderland. It has a feel and look all of its own that, if you try and mess with, will screw you over. If he came in and tried to make the Mad Hatter a Sweeney Todd character or the Cheshire Cat into a brooding skeletal kitty it would have fallen flat on its face. Wonderland is embedded into our minds and what Tim has done is enliven those images and create something that is frabjous in its look and feel.
Tim Burton removed the substance, wonder and witty social commentary which you'd expect from an "Alice in Wonderland" film (given the original material of the books) to simply create a visually overloaded film. This film is just another excuse for Tim Burton to go nuts with Visual FX, art direction and costumes. And J.Depp's acting is starting to become a caricature of himself and his past roles.
why is the film called "Alice in Wonderland" when it has almost nothing to do with the original novels except the name of the characters. I laugh to think of all the morons in school who had a book report to do on the book and only watched this film
@Sshelly34213 Not misinterpretation, misperception. If most people consider people with sewn on limbs, an overly gothic atmosphere etc to be dark, they consider it to be dark. Wether he does or dosen't is irrelevent and isn't his fault if people see it that way. If Tarantino turned around and said "i don't consider my movies to be violent" then would he be at fault because a lot of people thought they were?
I like it. I'm not British, don't know who's Nigela Lawson or this queen character Helena Bohman Carter's red queen is supposed to have copied, or Johnny Depp has two accents in the film.
Alice was woefully unprecocious. Just an utter drip who mulled from one bit to the next not even questioning much. That's not Alice. And what's the point of taking the quintessential classic example of not follow the boring modern save-the-cat three-act formula, and making it instead follow it? What the hell were they thinking chucking a prophecy in there? This material doesn't need that nonsense, it wants its own nonsense, much better nonsense. If all I want from a viewing experience is some weird visuals and people behaving odd I'll watch a music video not a film. Some of the visuals indeed worked in this, but that's really all it had. Was very disappointing. By the end of it, there was one main thought I came away with, and it was nothing to do with the story at all: "the way some directors use the same actors all the time really makes getting immersed in a set of characters into a difficult chore sometimes". I still think that about a lot of films I do like, but by the end of those films, I'm thinking something about the film I just watched, because there was enough there to actually affect me. Clearly here there wasn't.
CGI was the problem. It is very phony, unconvincing, and commercial looking. "Alice" is supposed to have that tasty, sincere, and individualist feel to it. CGI just looks robotic, unimaginative, and uninventive. It is childishly insulting in it's fake-ness.
The film has terrific visuals, great effects, well acted & is intriguing, however the film’s writing, direction, coherence & pacing is poor. (57%) (3/5 stars) (mixed)
@Sshelly34213 That's not his fault. He uses a certain imagery that people see as dark, which he dosen't agree with and you chastise him for it. Seems a little weird to me.
Tim Burton and Johnny Depp haven't made a good movie since "Ed Wood". Really wanted to like this one but it was too long and repetitive, imo. However I loved Stephen Fry (his voice, rather) and Crispin Glover.
It shouldn't have even been called "Alice in Wonderland", seeing it doesn't use the story or plot form that book- it was like "Return to Oz", and should've been called "Return to Wonderland", it would have made perfect sense.
@cmvisuals Me pretty much too. I watched this yesterday and I got bored after around half an hour. My only major disagreement with him is his love of Terrry Gilliam.
No. Its just that Kermode's views on films are almost always (almost) the same as mine, which is why he's my favourite critic. I've never liked the look of this film. I don't like the voice Depp puts on. I think some characters like Tweedledum and 'dee look ropey but I was always willing to give it the benefit of the doubt as its Burton but now after this review my hopes have sunk deeper. I'll still see it because I have a yearly cinema ticket which means I see just about everything.
@Sshelly34213 well no one else seemed to misunderstand it. anyway, really not worth bickering about. if you listen regularly you will see that is just his style
@Sshelly34213 If i could be bothered, i'd throw you the exact page number of the book in which he describes the happy Disney movies that he worked on in his earlier career where far darker than what he made, because they didn't represent anything real, and they destroyed stories in the name of a happy ending. The problem is everyone else calls him dark, he dosen't. Corpse Bride is evidence enough the he isn't a "dark" film maker.
@TheDensley7 Maybe "shite" isn't even strong enough. How about "utterly excremental". Nah, just joking. I watched Beetlejuice recently for the first time in like 15 years and was surprisingly disappointed. Loved it as a kid but not so much now. However, "shite" is clearly a bit much so I take that back. "Disappointing" will do.
This has to be one of the worst examples of a 3D movie so far. All it did was distract with its blurry edges and completely removed me from a very average film. From now on, the only 3D films i shall see are the ones actually filmed in that mode
Well, I'm not a fan of Tim Burton, Their visuals are excelent, but he never had the guts. He is good when he works with Dolls and marionetes, Tim, please keep working with Marionetes ok.
@Sshelly34213 Funny, Tim Burton in just about every interview whenever this is adressed (including his book Burton on Burton) claims his movies ARENT dark. He claims films with happy endings and all that are far darker than his movies.
After Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", I made a solemn vow never to go see another Tim Burton movie, especially if it has Johnny Depp in it. That was reinforced when I saw the trailer for this one.
such a horrible rippoff of american mcgees alice. just listen to some clips and you'll see where the ideas come from. only difference is american mcgees alice was good.
I found Burton's Alice to be painful. It was so boring and useless it just made me feel sore. It's a shame though. It originally seemed like Burton and Wonderland would go wonderfully together. Whatever man.
@toleodor I totally agree. Even Beetlejuice, one of his most famous and a kind of "cult classic", is actually pretty shite. Tim Burton is definitely overrated. That's all I can say.
I liked Alice In Wonderland but i'm convinced it would have been 20 times better.. if Tim had ditched the heavy CG and got the studio to finance a practical effects project. All of the green screen really drains the film of a lot of heft.
Dreamchild 1985 is a much better film with practical effects, sadness, creepiness, love, nostalgia, humour.
Its just dull. A bland story of a 'quirky' character who discovers that theres a prophecy and that they have to fight a big boring cgi monster with an annoying side character who was in the movie too much
So true about Bonham-Carter acting like Richardson in Blackadder, spot on.
Dreamchild 1985 is a much better film with practical effects, sadness, creepiness, love, nostalgia, humour.
Miranda Richardson also played the Queen of Hearts in the 1999 adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland".
So, it's a potboiler film? Surprise, bloody surprise.
I think I agree with everything Mark Kermode says about every movie he reviews!
Burton's doing Big eyes a biopic like Ed wood which was great. Burton trying to be better again and he has dipped in quality in the past years
Funny. I don't really agree with him at all.
I've only seen it in 3D so far, so I can't compare with 2D, but I felt like I was really in the movie. I also like the way Burton and Depp pictured the hatter. He's crazy in a darker way than in the book, which is only fitting, since the film is dark.
Overall, I loved it. It wasn't the best film I've ever seen, but I'll definitely buy the DVD.
It didn't really look like a Tim Burton film because it's Alice in Wonderland. It has a feel and look all of its own that, if you try and mess with, will screw you over. If he came in and tried to make the Mad Hatter a Sweeney Todd character or the Cheshire Cat into a brooding skeletal kitty it would have fallen flat on its face. Wonderland is embedded into our minds and what Tim has done is enliven those images and create something that is frabjous in its look and feel.
Kermode is the best critic ever, and a very bright dude.
@lmen1990 Yes he has, 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' a fine adaptation of the incomparable musical by Stephen Sondheim
Tim Burton removed the substance, wonder and witty social commentary which you'd expect from an "Alice in Wonderland" film (given the original material of the books) to simply create a visually overloaded film. This film is just another excuse for Tim Burton to go nuts with Visual FX, art direction and costumes. And J.Depp's acting is starting to become a caricature of himself and his past roles.
why is the film called "Alice in Wonderland" when it has almost nothing to do with the original novels except the name of the characters. I laugh to think of all the morons in school who had a book report to do on the book and only watched this film
@Sshelly34213 Not misinterpretation, misperception. If most people consider people with sewn on limbs, an overly gothic atmosphere etc to be dark, they consider it to be dark. Wether he does or dosen't is irrelevent and isn't his fault if people see it that way. If Tarantino turned around and said "i don't consider my movies to be violent" then would he be at fault because a lot of people thought they were?
I dont know if I was the only one but I had trouble understanding a lot of the mad hatters lines.
My friend said it had a plot like a video game do this to get that to do that. I'm inclined to agree and it's not a good one like Dragon Age Origins.
I like it. I'm not British, don't know who's Nigela Lawson or this queen character Helena Bohman Carter's red queen is supposed to have copied, or Johnny Depp has two accents in the film.
i think that was what they were saying with 'how did she get the job?' It was meant as a joke, rather than an actual question...
Alice was woefully unprecocious. Just an utter drip who mulled from one bit to the next not even questioning much. That's not Alice. And what's the point of taking the quintessential classic example of not follow the boring modern save-the-cat three-act formula, and making it instead follow it? What the hell were they thinking chucking a prophecy in there? This material doesn't need that nonsense, it wants its own nonsense, much better nonsense. If all I want from a viewing experience is some weird visuals and people behaving odd I'll watch a music video not a film. Some of the visuals indeed worked in this, but that's really all it had. Was very disappointing. By the end of it, there was one main thought I came away with, and it was nothing to do with the story at all: "the way some directors use the same actors all the time really makes getting immersed in a set of characters into a difficult chore sometimes". I still think that about a lot of films I do like, but by the end of those films, I'm thinking something about the film I just watched, because there was enough there to actually affect me. Clearly here there wasn't.
CGI was the problem. It is very phony, unconvincing, and commercial looking. "Alice" is supposed to have that tasty, sincere, and individualist feel to it. CGI just looks robotic, unimaginative, and uninventive. It is childishly insulting in it's fake-ness.
Dreamchild 1985 is a much better film with practical effects, sadness, creepiness, love, nostalgia, humour.
The film has terrific visuals, great effects, well acted & is intriguing, however the film’s writing, direction, coherence & pacing is poor. (57%) (3/5 stars) (mixed)
Cant say I'm too fond of the animation in this film, there's just too much of it for my liking.
Anything post 1995?
Well I quite liked Sweeney Todd and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory... Big Fish was decent aswell.
His worst film since Big Fish. I really enjoyed his Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but this was bad.
What is Tim Burtons appeal?
Art design
I completley agree with kermode. He says everything in this review that I thought about the film. Very good review. As always
@Sshelly34213 That's not his fault. He uses a certain imagery that people see as dark, which he dosen't agree with and you chastise him for it. Seems a little weird to me.
Tim Burton and Johnny Depp haven't made a good movie since "Ed Wood". Really wanted to like this one but it was too long and repetitive, imo. However I loved Stephen Fry (his voice, rather) and Crispin Glover.
It shouldn't have even been called "Alice in Wonderland", seeing it doesn't use the story or plot form that book- it was like "Return to Oz", and should've been called "Return to Wonderland", it would have made perfect sense.
I'm so sick of Tim Burton. He's just made the same movie over and over ever since Edward Scissorhands....
This was one of his worst. Simply boring
This was uploaded quickly!
@cmvisuals Me pretty much too. I watched this yesterday and I got bored after around half an hour. My only major disagreement with him is his love of Terrry Gilliam.
Similar plot to Return to Oz, which was far more terrifying and better
@dargis49
This isn't a remake.
Stuff like Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood, and Beetlejuice.
No. Its just that Kermode's views on films are almost always (almost) the same as mine, which is why he's my favourite critic.
I've never liked the look of this film. I don't like the voice Depp puts on. I think some characters like Tweedledum and 'dee look ropey but I was always willing to give it the benefit of the doubt as its Burton but now after this review my hopes have sunk deeper.
I'll still see it because I have a yearly cinema ticket which means I see just about everything.
@Sshelly34213
well no one else seemed to misunderstand it. anyway, really not worth bickering about. if you listen regularly you will see that is just his style
@wdm2112
My bad. I meant Tim Burtons re-imagining of movies sucks.
Looks like my suspicions of this film have been confirmed.
one of tim burtons and johnny depps worst. hated this movie although i tried to love it.
Only Tim Burton filmed I remotely enjoyed was Sleepy Hollow
I don't want to see Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland, I want to see Tim Burton's American McGee's Alice
@Sshelly34213 If i could be bothered, i'd throw you the exact page number of the book in which he describes the happy Disney movies that he worked on in his earlier career where far darker than what he made, because they didn't represent anything real, and they destroyed stories in the name of a happy ending. The problem is everyone else calls him dark, he dosen't. Corpse Bride is evidence enough the he isn't a "dark" film maker.
@TheDensley7
Maybe "shite" isn't even strong enough. How about "utterly excremental".
Nah, just joking. I watched Beetlejuice recently for the first time in like 15 years and was surprisingly disappointed. Loved it as a kid but not so much now.
However, "shite" is clearly a bit much so I take that back. "Disappointing" will do.
This has to be one of the worst examples of a 3D movie so far. All it did was distract with its blurry edges and completely removed me from a very average film. From now on, the only 3D films i shall see are the ones actually filmed in that mode
You know what???
...You might be right...
*Are right*
Well, I'm not a fan of Tim Burton, Their visuals are excelent, but he never had the guts. He is good when he works with Dolls and marionetes, Tim, please keep working with Marionetes ok.
@Sshelly34213 Funny, Tim Burton in just about every interview whenever this is adressed (including his book Burton on Burton) claims his movies ARENT dark. He claims films with happy endings and all that are far darker than his movies.
All of Tim Burton's remakes are disappointing.
@FlavioSousa35 You can't say this on here!
After Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", I made a solemn vow never to go see another Tim Burton movie, especially if it has Johnny Depp in it. That was reinforced when I saw the trailer for this one.
so you missed out on Sweeney Todd
@@blaisetelfer8499 Yes I did.
@Sshelly34213
i think you mean: "i have a shit sense of humour"
anonymous namecalling - very mature. why so defensive?
No Tim Burton movie is "long awaited". Rubbish.
Beetlejuice 2.
Not anymore.
Ok
I'd say Sweeney Todd.
@bobokk They're nice to look at :)
such a horrible rippoff of american mcgees alice. just listen to some clips and you'll see where the ideas come from. only difference is american mcgees alice was good.
Does Mark ever enjoy a film ?
Yes of course. He was ecstatic about Pan's Labrinth.
shit I was hoping this was going to be great
@Sshelly34213
because i am omniscient
I just loved that flick.
@Sshelly34213
it was meant as a joke. learn to develop a sense of humour.
but yes, tim burton has been a joke recently
if kermode is so clever, write your own movie, and ill slag it off
Sorry, but no... just no.
I'm surprised to hear Mark is a fan of Burton, considering the guy hasn't made a worthwhile movie since...Batman Returns!
I found Burton's Alice to be painful. It was so boring and useless it just made me feel sore.
It's a shame though. It originally seemed like Burton and Wonderland would go wonderfully together.
Whatever man.
@toleodor
I totally agree.
Even Beetlejuice, one of his most famous and a kind of "cult classic", is actually pretty shite.
Tim Burton is definitely overrated. That's all I can say.
This is a good film.
crap