Tim Burton´s take on Alice in Wonderland has of course been out for quite some time now. The reason I haven´t seen it until now is mainly that I´ve fallen off the Tim Burton train. He has done some unique and brilliant things in the past. Big Fish in particular was a high point for me, and I have fond memories of watching that movie with my late mother. But his later works are increasingly anemic and passionless. I´m afraid Burton has lost his edge, or perhaps his love of genuine storytelling.
This is painfully evident in Alice in Wonderland. From the first frames it´s clear that Burton is merely painting by numbers. The characters are bland cardboard cut-outs, flat and lifeless. Burton constantly underestimates his audience: witness the casting and characterization of Hamish, Alice´s husband-to-be. The movie is trying to hit us over the head with the message “Hamish is a dreadful bore, and Alice shouldn´t marry him!” But in the end it all just comes across as bad storytelling.
So what´s going to be Burton´s next project? Perhaps an adaptation of Winnie-the-Pooh, where Christopher Robin returns as a grown up, and goes into an epic battle with sword in hand to defend the Hundred Acre Wood? Or Pippi Longstockings, where grown up Pippi has been diagnosed as psychotic, and insitutionalized for 15 years, before she finally breaks out and reclaims her villa in an epic battle with sword in hand?
Count me out from now on. I´m not interested.
Christer
Since I worked on Tim Burton for my master’s thesis, I’ve obviously had a soft spot for him. The 1989 Batman is still a worthy reboot, from so long before darker and grittier reboots became commonplace. Edward Scissorhands is a masterpiece, and Batman Returns and Ed Wood followed in fine style.
I also like Sleepy Hollow. A fine Hammer tribute with a few twists.
And Burton’s ultimate triumph is Big Fish. I’ve seen that film so often, and it is so well crafted and emotionally inspired, that I don’t mind sitting through it again and again, thesis long since done.
But yeah, since then? Charlie And The Chocolate Factory…yawn. Sweeney Todd…a bit fun, but forgettable. Alice In Wonderland…yawn. And there’s no sign that Burton will ever come back from this territory, with most of his plate filled by similar 3D and animation projects.