Alice in Wonderland marked a tipping point for the career of Tim Burton; with this movie, the previously idolised direction finally took things too far, giving with to flat direction, CGI and something of an autopilot mentality that would plague his work thereafter. The original announcement of a Tim Burton-directed Alice In Wonderland sounded great, of course, conjuring up images of a dark and humorous adaptation unlike any we'd seen. Unfortunately, Burton apparently directed this with his eyes closed and without reading the script. It's remarkable to ponder as to how he managed to screw up the story, given that it was already written down for him; the narrative on display here is so messy and confusing. And let's not get started on the overabundance of CGI, Johnny Depp phoning it in, or the fact that the film is so, so boring. A real shame, as this could've been fantastic.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
