Writer: Linda Woolverton
Director: James Bobin
After a pre-title card spot of japery on the high seas which is akin to a low-speed, historical version of Fast and Furious with sailing ships, Alice Kingsleigh (Wasikowska) returns home to find financial problems on dry land and problems in Underland concerning the health of The Hatter (Depp). The poor guy's fading fast and the only solution appears to be for Alice to travel back in time to change the grim fate of the Hatter's family. For this to be possible, she has to convince Time (SBC) to let her borrow a device called the Chronosphere...
James Bobin's film is a visual treat and every scene is sumptuous save for the odd sliver of shaky CGI in which characters appear to be floating over the landscape rather than walking upon it. This is a minor gripe when 99.99% of the action looks so gorgeous and even I was taken in by the 3D version of this despite being no particular fan of the process or the specs I have to wear for a couple of hours. The locations are superbly detailed, the colours vivid, the fantastical setting made very real.
So why didn't I enjoy it more? Well, if only the considerable attention to detail lavished on creating a living, breathing fantasy world had been similarly lavished on giving the story more emotional heft. Despite the fact that the very life of The Hatter is in Alice's hands there's rarely a sense of genuine jeopardy and the tugs at the heart strings feel more manipulative rather than a natural product of the story. It builds to a climactic sequence in which all the protagonists gather to slug it out - in a PG-rated, fisticuff-avoiding way - but even that's resolved in a way that left me thinking "Was that it?".
Before you think I spent most of the movie wanting to go all Red Queen and demanding the heads of all involved, there are many things that I liked about ATTLG. Depp doesn't overdo it with the wackiness as the Hatter and Mia Wasikowska makes for a fine heroine but it's Sacha Baron Cohen as the comically menacing Time who stole the film for me, playing it broadly enough to ensure plenty of laughs but not so much that his antics become tiresome. When he's on screen the proceedings are lively and entertaining and the running gag about how he blames everyone but himself is very well done.
Similarly, Helena Bonham Carter is excellent as the spoiled, unhinged Iracebeth, here given a rather tragic backstory as well which doesn't necessarily excuse all of the frankly psychotic things she does but gives the audience a clear point of reference as to where all of her vengeful plans stem from. Again, the resolution of the conflict between Iracebeth and Mirana (Anne Hathaway) is throwaway and somewhat unconvincing considering what's gone before but HBC gives it her best shot and it's neither her nor Hathaway's fault that the dramatic beats don't resonate as they should.
It's another big-budget blockbuster season movie which falls frustratingly short of its ambitions. It's by no means terrible - in fact, there are flashes of brilliance across the entire running time - but I left the cinema feeling that the movie needed a much stronger emotional core to complement its beautiful look. Curiouser and curioser...
No comments:
Post a Comment