Alice in Wonderland 3D

Only loosely based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Tim Burton’s highly-anticipated, live-action/CGI hybrid take on Alice is the first major 3-D release since Avatar. The film also reunites Burton with actor Johnny Depp for the seventh time.

What the critics like: The comedic performances by many of the supporting actors — like Michael Sheen, Matt Lucas and Stephen Fry — are drawing praise from a number of reviewers, as is Helena Bonham Carter’s scene-stealing turn as the Red Queen. Some critics also like a portion of the film’s CGI animation — in fact, the Hollywood Reporter calls the film "gorgeous." Roger Ebert also admires the look of the film, and recommends seeing it in 2-D, where the images will be "brighter and more colorful." Some critics feel that the material and Burton’s imagination make for a good match.

What they don’t like: Wasikowska’s performance — though not bad — is unable to overcome her character’s barely-there presence. Many critics aren’t happy with the 3-D treatment — which can be distracting and (literally) pales in comparison to films like Avatar — and not everyone is fond of the look of the film. (The New York Times, for example, calls it "garish.") Depp’s performance also is drawing rare criticism; the New York Observer’s Christopher Rosen observes that "he acts like even being on set was a chore," and Time Out New York labels Depp’s Mad Hatter "unmemorable." The story is a major problem for a number of reviewers, who felt that Burton (or Disney) tried too hard to make the film like a Lord of the Rings or Narnia movie (some even compared it to a videogame or Dungeons & Dragons). In addition to strongly disapproving of the battle-heavy third act, many critics find the first act’s pre-Wonderland/Underland scenes (centering on Alice’s engagement party) "tedious" (Los Angeles Times) or "unbearable, leaden and doomy and generically plotted" (Austin Chronicle). And the Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern speaks for several critics when he finds the movie surprisingly conventional for a Burton film; the A.V. Club similarly derides the film as "frustratingly impersonal."

Found at metacritic.com