ALICE IN WONDERLAND... I watched Tim Burton’s latest flick today, and with the exception of some moments (most of them towards the end) in the movie, I was disappointed. After being immersed in the awesome world of Pandora that was created by James Cameron in Avatar, I was underwhelmed by Burton’s depiction of Wonderland...possibly because the visual FX in Alice in Wonderland was pretty poor. I read an article late last year about how Burton was in a rush to complete this latest reincarnation of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale in time for opening weekend... I didn’t know he was in that much of a bind. Just watching this movie made me realize that Avatar should at least win the Oscar for Best Visual FX tomorrow.
Acting-wise, there was nothing special to note in the film. Johnny Depp’s portrayal as the Mad Hatter pales in comparison to his funny portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies...despite the bizarre look Burton gave to the Hatter in this flick. Speaking of Pirates of the Caribbean, there were lots of moments in Alice in Wonderland where I (and most likely a couple of other people in the theater audience) couldn’t hear or understand a damn thing some of the characters were saying (some of this due to Danny Elfman’s music score playing essentially nonstop throughout the movie). This problem was also prevalent when I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest in 2006 and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005. These two flicks were also let-downs.
Helen Bonham Carter’s portrayal of the Red Queen was the one positive thing that stood out from Burton’s movie (FYI, Carter and Burton are domestic partners in real life. Just thought I’d share). It might be attributed to her huge honkin' head in this film. Mia Wasikowska, who plays Alice, is very attractive...but performance-wise? Think Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace to know what I’m about to say.
One last note... What’s up with that song that played during the end credits of the movie? It totally didn’t suit the film. To give props to James Cameron again: At least he was shrewd enough to have Celine Dion incorporate James Horner’s main love theme from Titanic into her song "My Heart Will Go On", and again have Leona Lewis incorporate Horner’s love theme from Avatar into her song "I See You" (which, admittedly, still seemed out of place at the end of the sci-fi epic, haha). And Linkin Park and Steve Jablonsky collaborated on the score for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen...with the song "New Divide" being the main music theme for the Michael Bay sequel. Anyways. That is all.
No comments:
Post a Comment