Alice, a quick review

For those of you that are going to see Alice in Wonderland I thought I would give you my two cents since I saw it last night, I "midnight showed" it as my friend likes to say.

I liked it, the boy did not.

I thought it was good for what I was expecting. It's not life changing but for Tim Burton its better than I thought it would be. It got horrible reviews so I wasn't going in expecting much; and, with that in mind I was surprised at how much better it was than what I was expecting especially after the doom and gloom of the reviews.

Do not go in expecting the Disney storyline that you're used to, the story is completely different, the only similarity are the characters, other than that there's nothing the same, that may have disappointed some people. Seeing it in 3D was cool, but its not required like it was with maybe Avatar.

The boy was a little extreme in saying that its one of the worst movies he's ever seen. Saying it's contrived, over the top, and the whimsical aspects were not whimsical at all merely forced. He thought it was too obvious and there were very few layers where as the original had a lot of hidden messages and meanings in it. He thought the ending was a let down and was not impressed at all.

I thought it was fun, not deep (like I said, not life changing) but it was a movie you go to see and don't have to think too hard about. It was kind of nice to be able to relive a childhood classic but with a little dark adventure thrown in (It is a Burton after all). As I'm sure most of you were expecting Johnny Depp has a main role in the film, he does a good job of being mad but not over the top annoying like I thought he would be, he had a deeper character in this version I think. You liked him and felt sorry for him all at once. The actor I found the most irritating was Helena Bonham Carter, she's extreme and over the top and I'm tired of the same dark angry character she seems to embrace in most of her films. Mia Wasikowska (of In Treatment from HBO) does a lovely job as does Anne Hathaway.

So there it is, it's good, not great. Go see it. And let me know what you think!