Alice In Wonderland.

When it was announced, teaming up Lewis Caroll & Tim Burton seemed like a match made in heaven. I just couldn't wait to see what this could give and there was no doubt it would nothing short of amazing.

Then as a few first reviews came out, wildly negative, I was stunned. What could have gone wrong? Could Tim Burton waste such an opportunity?
So I went in slightly worried, but with an open mind. After all, I've pretty much liked anything he did (Planets Of The Apes was a low, but still enjoyable), especially his latest Charlie & The Chocolate Factory & Sweeney Todd.

So is it the disaster the critics announced?
No.
Yet, it didn't entirely work for me either.

There is a lot of stuff here that I really loved.
Visually speaking, it's a pure delight. Burton's Underland manages to really blend Burton's visuals with what you would expect from Alice's Wonderland.
It's happening 10years on so the world is kind of derelict and has a darker side, which works perfectly. No character has the same size or proportions and it all fit together seamlessly.
And for someone who says that he doens't know how to film action scenes, I thought he did a fine job on the final battle...

I liked a lot of ideas brought to the world due to the fact that Alice is older, especially her ambiguous relationship with the Mad Hatter.

Speaking of which, the characters, also, are brilliant. My heart goes to the Cheshire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry), all feline grace and vaporous apparitions. But Helena Bonham-Carter's red Queen is also superb, as is Anne Hathaway's White Queen (I really like her way to really go over the top in how the character is gracious, yet has this calculating way of having people do what shes wants). Not mentionning Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter. And then there's also Crispin Glover, Alan Rickman... What a cast...
The designs of the red Queen's soldiers were also a highlight for me. Generally the production design was incredible.

So what went wrong then?
Well if I have to blame something, I'd say the story.
For starters, it didn't feel like it flowed very well throughout. Motivations of the characters weren't quite evident to me and I could see sort of shortcuts that didn't feel quite logical.
I'm not one for over-thinking movies, I usually take what the director gives me, but this did prevent me from fully getting into it. More like, I would be sucked in, but something would throw me out from time to time.

Also, the end for me was way too over the top. It felt rushed and clicheed. It's not all bad, there are good ideas, but I just didn't feel it was introduced well enough for me to buy into it...
There's nothing worse than leaving the theatre on a bad impression...

So it's far from a disaster, there's a lot to like here and any one who says that Burton wasn't inspired here would be clearly out of his mind, given the amazing visuals. But I can't help to think it would have been so much better with a better script.
I'll try and watching it again someday to give it another chance...