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The film seems to have been a strange meeting place between Lewis Carroll, Tim Burton and executives at Disney. For all practical intents and purposes, the film is an action/adventure sequel to the thoroughly surreal and mind-bending books Carroll wrote. Rather than being a brilliant fusion between Disney commercial aesthetics, the whimsically dark sensibilities of Tim Burton and the playful surrealism of Carroll, the film comes across as a diluted mix of all three, not really completely satisfying as either of the two films it is evidently attempting to be.

As an action film, Tim Burton's Alice is a great deal of fun to watch. There's a very coherent plot structure that quite clearly moves the action from one scene to the next. There's plenty of chase and pursuit, but it's all pretty standard Hollywood stuff framed in a very traditional Hollywood script. As a result it's entertaining, but forgettable as an actioner. Mia Wasikowska looks beautiful in shining armor charging to meet the Jabberwocky, Vorpal sword in hand, but something's missing. It's not as powerful an image as it needs to be to stand on its own as an action climax and it's not deliciously bizarre enough to bring any of Carroll's crazy energy to the screen.

As a tribute to the work of Carroll, the film only mirrors the spirit of his work on the surface. It lacks the deeply subtle darkness balanced by whimsical comedy that makes the book so haunting. As a surreal drama, there are plenty of enjoyable bits here and there. Mia Wasikowska plays Alice with a touching humanity that is not altogether different from the childhood character represented in the book. The problem is that the dramatic end of the film is bogged-down in a coming-of-age story that is ill-suited to the whimsical end of the source material. Tethering the offbeat text of Carol's original story to a traditional action film that also looks to be a coming-of-age drama would only work if any of the individual genres the film was attempting to reside in were significantly added to by the fusion. Instead of an impressive synergy between the three different genres, we get something that isn't terribly satisfying as any of the three films it is trying to be.

The Verdict

Carroll's original books have a kind of depth to them that isn't very well known to those of us who grew-up in the US with the classic Disney animated adaptation of the film. The latest live-action Disney version of Alice isn't a straight adaptation of the novels it's based on. And while it's nice that they tried to do something new with Carroll's source material, it lacks the subtle complexity of the original works, effectively robbing Carroll's world of the subtle bite that makes it so compelling. As a simple coming-of-age action film, the movie isn't that bad, but it hardly lives-up to the source material that made it so interesting.

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