Alice in Wonderland is so stupid??????
I am still reeling from shock at how much I dis-frightfully-liked it! The one and only part I actually thought was close to okay was when the poor bloodhound was re-united with his wife and puppies.
Why did I hate it so much? First of all, it didn't have anything to do with the original Alice. They made up an entirely new backstory for her, packaged with a nice new last name. They dressed her in the sort of dress that a normal Victorian girl might have gotten away with wearing until she was maybe fourteen or fifteen ... but Alice was supposed to be nineteen.
None of the jokes were funny, and it was obvious the actors were only going through the motions. Everyone's makeup was hideous, most notably Anne Hathaway's lipstick and Mia Wasikowska's eyeshadow.
Johnny Depp butchered his recitation of the "Jabberwocky" poem. The least Burton could have done when deciding to make a movie called Alice in Wonderland is to do a little bit of background reading. Lewis Carroll might have made up words, but he was very clear in his explanation of how they should be pronounced.
And this might be a minor quibble for some people, but I thought Alice was unbearably rude. She went around demanding that people (or animals) do things for her, and she never once said thank you. She was a wuss and a ninny and git, endlessly whining about how she could never kill anything and how much her arm was stinging.
And the theme? That theme has been re-treated, re-washed, and re-hung out to dry so many times I couldn't believe anyone who purports to have brains would actually re-use it. Take charge of your own destiny? Make your own decisions? Defy the establishment that says you should wear a corset? Go to China? WHAT???? If that was all he wanted to get across, all he had to do was cast Queen Latifah as Alice.
I could probably go on, but I won't, because I think I've said plenty. But if you're reading this post and you haven't yet seen the scrambled up mess that Tim Burton calls Alice in Wonderland, preserve your brain cells and don't do it.
Hahaha! All of the things you mention occurred to me while I watched this movie, but I had low expectations so I enjoyed it. Yeah, the biggest thing was, what was the point?
ReplyDeleteLove your Queen Latifah comment!
I was just the opposite of Janeheiress - I think I had too-high expectations because Johnny Depp is in it. I was excited months before it was released and even went to see it in 3D. Overall I thought it was OK, with moments of just annoying. I'm not really a fan of the animated Disney version, either - you?
ReplyDeleteNo. I don't like the Disney version either, but I can't say that fairly because I've only seen a few minutes of it here and there.
ReplyDeleteThere's a really weird miniseries of it that came out in the '80s. I don't think I would like it now; it was low budget and the little girl who played Alice wasn't all that good--but it had some extremely quotable lines.