The dream team of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton is usually a pretty successful one, but even their combined kookiness couldn't save 2010's reimagining of Lewis Carroll's classic fairytale. To Burton's credit, he didn't play it safe with Alice In Wonderland, as most filmmakers would have done when adapting a story as beloved as this. Burton claimed that his goal was to retain the classic nature of the story, but to also give it a "freshness" and "some framework of emotional grounding". While admirable, the result is a narrative just as incoherent as its source material, but one that adheres to a structure seen time and again in any number of big budget blockbusters of recent years, with a climactic final battle to boot. In a word, it's predictable. It is a beautiful-looking film, but much of the heart of the book comes not from the illustrations or the imaginary world it portrays, but in the absurdity of the characters inhabiting it. While Burton's Alice In Wonderland is chock full of weird characters, they're the same personalities to be found in any number of his films. In all honesty, The Mad Hatter could easily be substituted by Depp's Willy Wonka. Nobody would notice.
