TOO MUCH MUCHNESS, NOT ENOUGH BURTON: A review of "Alice In Wonderland"

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" Directed by Tim Burton
* (one star)

”The studios have found comfort in these enormous movies. The big-budget blockbuster is becoming one of the most dependable forms of filmmaking. It was only three or four years ago when there was a significant risk with that kind of film. Now, especially last summer, we saw blockbuster after blockbuster be released, and they all had significant budgets and they're all doing fine. It almost doesn't matter if the film is a good film or a bad film, they're all doing OK.”
-Director Peter Jackson
from the Newsweek magazine interview, “It’s The Story, Stupid” with Peter Jackson and James Cameron originally published December 21, 2009

Extremely perceptive and prophetic words from Peter Jackson, as I feel we are all existing in a strange and possibly dangerous time in modern American cinema. Now, this is not meant to be hyperbolic. But, I do tend to worry as we are living in a “Transformers” world. With the unbelievable quantum leaps made in film technology and special effects, I have been pondering for a few years if the art of filmmaking is becoming increasingly devalued while the glossy sheen of new, shiny tricks that serve to lure mass audiences back into the movie theaters grows stronger…or at least, more lucrative. For instance, I have stated several times that I am more than a little skeptical over the groundbreaking new 3D technology, as I am not convinced it is anything more than a gimmick, with no guarantees that enhanced visuals will create enhanced storytelling. Also, CGI technology has become a terrible crutch over modern day filmmakers who mindlessly resort to showstopping visual bells and whistles simply because they can and not because they should.

As Peter Jackson questioned the current state of technological advances in conjunction with good old fashioned storytelling in the same Newsweek interview, he stated, “I think we've dropped the ball a little bit on stories for the sake of the amazing toys that we've played with.” This could not even be more of the case these days as I have already taken several swings at the massively underwhelming “Avatar,” James Cameron’s two billion dollar box-office behemoth. But now with Director Tim Burton’s “Alice In Wonderland,” a bloated and miserable new adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass, the gloves are coming off. In addition to easily being his worst film since his disastrous 2001 “re-imagining” of “Planet Of the Apes,” it is one of the worst films of 2010.

The film begins with 6 year old Alice waking up from yet another recurring nightmare starring waistcoat wearing rabbits and cheshire cats. After asking her kindly dreamer of a father if she is indeed going around the bend, he gently reassures her that she is…because the best people he has ever known have all been mad.

When we next meet Alice (now played throughout the remainder of the film by Mia Wasikowska), it is after her beloved father has passed away. She is 19 and trapped within the high society pressures and expectations that completely go against the grain of her naturally impulsive and imaginative personality. Arriving at a garden party, which turns out to be a surprise engagement party for herself and the stuffy Hamish (Leo Bill), Alice is overcome. She then spots that waistcoat wearing rabbit scurrying through bushes, follows it and falls through the rabbit hole, emerging into Underland. All of the major players are here from the White Rabbit (voiced by Michael Sheen), The March Hare (voiced by Paul Whitehouse), the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), that mysterious smoking caterpiller (voiced by Alan Rickman, apparently still channeling Severus Snape), and of course, The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp).

After travelling through this dreamy landscape and enduring many stages of becoming either too small or too large due to those “Eat Me/Drink Me” pastries and beverages, Alice discovers that it is her fate is to save Underland from the tyranny of the large–headed Red Queen (Helana Bonham Carter) and her minions which include her right hand man Stayne (Crispin Glover) and the fearsome Jabberwocky (voiced by Christopher Lee).

Even if you have never read the Carroll books (as I have not), the characters and situations are inherently familiar. Everything you would expect to see in this film is here and on lavish display. Yet the titanic problem is that the movie has no opinion or feeling about anything as it only seems to care about how many ways it can wow an audience solely through display of CGI special effects. The Mad Hatter expresses to Alice at one point that she has “lost her muchness.” For me, this film was a loud, joyless boor that depended, with too much muchness, on flatly presented visual splendor. But, without a story to hang that splendor upon, there is nothing and I mean, NOTHING.

“Alice In Wonderland” is impersonal big budget filmmaking at its most depressing, which is shocking considering it is helmed by Tim Burton, one of our most original visionaries. When I think of most of Burton’s past work or even films from George Lucas, the Wachowski brothers, Terry Gilliam and of course, Cameron and Jackson, we have true artists that know fully well that special effects exist as nothing more than a tool and to treat them as anything more would be creative suicide. At their very best, it is as if we have purchased tickets for a front row seat into their wildest dreams and no matter how many gifted computer wizards are involved, their personal stamp is placed upon each frame. It is as if you can see their fingerprints on every image.

Yet, Burton is nowhere to be found with this new film. Perhaps it is because “Alice In Wonderland” was created in partnership with Walt Disney and I certainly do not mean Disney as a collaborative artist. I mean Disney as the faceless monolithic conglomerate hoping to create a film solely for mass appeal and massive box office by making it as bland and inoffensive as possible by draining out every stitch of uniqueness and creativity. Burton the artist is not to be seen as he has effectively become another cog in the wheel. I cannot help but to wonder if this film would have been different if he had made it without Disney’s participation. Alas, we’ll never know. In the battle of art vs. commerce, art has profoundly lost and we are left with a film that is emotionless and soulless. It contain no sense of awe, wonder, fear, excitement, terror or anything connected to the source material other than the names of characters and situations we all know. There is nothing resembling any human emotion other than tedium and boredom. Do you remember that amazingly surreal “Alice” themed music video from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for “Don’t Come Around Here No More”? More was accomplished and representative of the source material in four minutes and thirty six seconds of that video than the nearly two hours of this movie!

Another major problem is Alice herself. Unlike “The Wizard Of Oz,” where Dorothy’s inner journey carries equal weight (if not even more) than her outer, fantastical travels, Alice is inanely, and again impersonally, hurtled from one set piece to the next. She is a cipher within her own story, a hapless pawn who pathetically continues to proclaim that her adventures are nothing but a dream…so much longer past the point where anyone else would have known better. While we gather the seeds of Alice’s inner journey in the opening sequences, there are all but forgotten once she reaches Underland. I found myself becoming less interested as the film continued and my heart sank when I realized that all this movie ultimately cared about was giving us another generic good vs. evil battle culminating in another tiresome digital war sequence. I just sat there, mouth agape and wondering like Peggy Lee, “Is that all there is?

This is not the fault of Mia Wasikowska, who does what she can, but is ultimately lost in the wonderland of green screen special effects and what a shame that is. Wasikowska is a young actress to watch for certain. Her difficult and heartbreakingly ferocious performance as a teen gymnast on the excellent HBO series “In Treatment” shows that she is a gift to any Director who wishes to work with her. Yet, Burton wastes her talent. In fact, aside from Helena Bonham Carter, who somehow punches her way through the digital haze with a performance of real energy, character and humor, all of the actors fail to make lasting impressions.

Even Burton’s greatest collaborator and conduit Johnny Depp was unable to score points in this CGI wasteland. While his Mad Hatter, complete with fright wig, colored eyes and a vocal lisp merged with an Irish brogue (as well as a dash of a certain pirate from the Caribbean) is a new entry into Depp’s arsenal of oddballs and eccentrics, he is mostly forgettable. And to make someone of Johnny Depp’s endless skills, versatility and talents forgettable is a cinematic crime.

Now please understand dear readers, that I have nothing against special effects as a rule. In fact, most of my favorite movies of all time contain some level or another of groundbreaking visuals. I want to be blown away by the sights and sounds like anybody else. But, for me, there always has to be a strong story to tell, to engage me and involve me and when it doesn’t happen, all of the effects in the world don’t mean a thing to me. “I think we're going to enter a phase where there's less interest in the CGI and there's a demand for story again,” Jackson stated in the Newsweek interview. I do hope that he is correct. Of course, there is a place for all kinds of films but when this much money is being spent and this much talent is at work, I feel that they owe it to the theater patrons to just try and create the best film they can possibly create. There are bound to be failures as well as successes…perhaps even more so. But, just make the honest full-blooded attempt because when you solely chase the money with hopes of gathering box-office domination (which this film certainly has accomplished), you lose your artistry completely.

Tim Burton, you’ve made your money. So now, please come back.