I had seen a lot of negative reviews about this film before I went to see it and now that I have watched the movie I'm rather irritated by the criticism it got. I'm someone that has read and loved both of Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland books they are actually my favorite classic novels and I absolutely loved this film, not because it's like the book, but rather because it took the idea of Alice in Wonderland and its characters and created a new, interesting story. There was so much criticism saying that this film is nothing like the book, which is somewhat true, but <more> neither was the Tim Burton film that was done before this one. Burton's Alice in Wonderland was inspired by a single poem from the novel Through the Looking Glass The Jabberwocky and also referenced Down the Rabbit Hole, but still had its own original storyline, just like this film did. There was also much criticism saying that the story was hard to follow, which I found to be quite the opposite. This film did a bit of hand holding and lead the audience through the plot to make sure everything was clear, but I personally find the criticism of an Alice in Wonderland film having a "hard to follow plot" a ridiculous criticism because anyone who read Lewis Carroll's novels knows that the "plot" is practically nonexistent and the point of the novels is the adventure, creativity, and absurdity. I personally loved much of the nonsensical banter in this film, but could see how it would confuse someone trying to make sense of it and apply it to the plot, but again I make the argument of previous adaptions doing this and being praised. Disney's animated Alice in Wonderland for instance, has just a tad more of a plot than Lewis Carroll's novels, but is still filled with even more nonsense than this film and yet it was better received and I think this is due to today's audiences expecting an epic tail with a complex plot when they go to see a film rather than simply enjoying movies as a creative art form. Another criticism I saw was that the visuals weren't as good as the previous film which isn't true. Yes the previous film used a bit less CGI and a darker pallet, but that was Tim Burton's choice as a director and a design technique that fit that films tone. This film used a much brighter colour scheme and tended to have more CGI characters, but this is because this film is meant to be much more lighthearted and there were many more characters that were too complex in design to not be CGI, but those characters were still unique and creative as well as properly rendered and well animated. I think most of the bad reviews of this film come from people who were expecting a true adaption of Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking Glass-which, lets face it, would not have been well received either because of it's "nonplot"-. Or maybe the reviews are from people expecting another Tim Burton film-which this isn't, it's directed by James Bobin-. Or perhaps they come from people that would have liked a child Alice and then would have been more willing to accept all of the nonsense, childlike behavior and excitement Alice had in this film. In short I loved this film, and this is coming from someone who loves Lewis Carroll's books and who is studying film. If you're expecting a "book accurate" adaption, this film is not that, but it is still creative and fun and does capture the essence of Carroll's books, so I would suggest you go watch it and form your own opinion, but the only advice I would give is to go into this movie with the open and adventurous mind of a child. <less> |