Reviews: Alice in Wonderland & Green Zone

Blunderland

Despite the obvious limitations that many attribute to him, I still remain a loyal Tim Burton fan. I still credit his wild imagination as the starting point for my current love of the cinema. While his style has gotten a little predictable over the years, I continue to look forward to his films, and believe that he can make great ones in that vein. His fantastic adaptation of Sweeney Todd dazzled me beyond belief, and I am still convinced that he deserved to take home the Best Director Oscar. The next item on his list is this yet another quirky reinvention on an old classic near and dear to so many childhood memories. What he gives us a fantastic visual spectacle that is often brought down by a tedious pace and one very strange performance.

Burton's Alice is not so much a remake of the original Disney animated classic but more of a continuation, almost inspired by Spielberg's Hook. Alice, played by newcommer Mia Wasikowska, is now a nineteen year old being put on the path of forced martial status by her family. But her fascination with the bizarre leads her back to a forgotten Wonderland (now called Underland), where the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) has taken over with a tyrannical rule. It is up to Alice, teaming up with Johnny Depp's super eccentric Mad Hatter, to defeat the Queen's most horrible creature in order to return the world she used to remember back to the way it was.

Even if you believe Burton to be a predictable hack, I can tell you that his visual style is not one that is arbitrary. Burton's direction is very controlled, and he continues to show the usefulness of that spectacle here. He floods the screen with vibrant images that make it all the more fascinating to behold. Unfortunately, the screenplay by Linda Woolverton is really a mess, riddled with an odd pace of serious and dramatic, an off brand sense of humor and a climax featuring an action sequence that its director could never handle well in any film he's done. Plus, there's an unusual amount of eye-gouging in this film.

The actors here are capable of providing good work, but their limitations are pretty much the ones seen in the Star Wars prequels; when all you're reacting to is a green screen, then it's hard to have a great connection. Wasikowska provides a good center to the film, but I have to admit I never found her to be mindblowing. Bonham Carter, probably the only member of the cast who is a standout, does give the film energy and passion desperately needed. Other smaller parts like Anne Hathaway as the Queen's much nicer sibling, Michael Sheen as the tardy white rabbit and Alan Rickman as the mellow caterpillar are fine additions, but aren't used to their greatest effect.

Then, there's Depp. Don't get me wrong; I like Johnny Depp. He'd be an Oscar winner for Pirates of the Caribbean if I had my way, and I even enjoyed his odd choices in Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when other didn't. However, his choices here always strike a wrong chord. His screen presence is undeniable, but the character he creates is often annoying like nails on a chalkboard. I applaud Depp's ambition to make the character different, but I also think he shows us why the Mad Hatter has always been a secondary character.

There's plenty to admire in this film, but there's also plenty to dislike. I like many of the performances, and Burton's visual spectacle does impress many times, but the script is lacking, Danny Elfman's score feels lazy, the 3D is pretty lackluster and Depp brings down the film to a halt in many scenes that feel unbearable. I remain a loyal Tim Burton fan, but even I can recognize when something isn't working. He's got other projects on his slate, and I hope he can deliver in the future. Here, it never comes together entirely. **1/2 / ****; GRADE: B-

Mind Field

After 2009 wasn't quite living up to my expectations, I remember making a list of all the releases that 2010 had to offer and became very excited to enter that new year. Three of the films on that list were The Wolfman, Shutter Island and Alice in Wonderland, and all of those films disappointed. I was beginning to lose hope that the promise this year gave early on was not going to be fulfilled. This film was also on the list, and given the latest efforts concerning Iraq War dramas lately, I was still skeptical on the success of the film, and early word of mouth seemed to add onto the fear this movie would fail as well. Having seen the film, I'm very happy to report that this is the first 2010 release film I've seen, that I was looking forward to, that actually did not disappoint.

Matt Damon stars (obvious from the poster) as a U.S. Army officer named Miller who is on the ground in Baghdad in early 2003. The quest for Saddam Hussein's WMDs are in full swing, but Miller is noticing that the sites provided by a secretive source named "Migellan" keep coming up empty. So Miller, bouncing between a pencil pushing Neocon (Greg Kinnear) and an investigative reporter (Amy Ryan), goes on his own one-man quest to find the true answers as to what is going on. The rest, as they say, is regrettable history.

Paul Greengrass has been the man who has mastered the docudrama approach, his most successful effort being the superbly crafted United 93. Greengrass's strengths have always been that his projects feel real, and even though the shaky camera can sometimes give you a bit of a headache, it is still used as a tool to enhance the apparent realism that is being offered. It's interesting how his direction can seem controlled and loose at the same time, but it always appears that he is a man that knows what the goal of a scene should be, an element he has shown even in his Bourne action vehicles. However, Brian Helgeland, usually an accomplished writer, provides a script is often riddled with hindsight proselytizing and subpar dialogue. The script isn't a tight as the direction, but it's merely passable.

Damon is an excellent actor, and he shows how again how his intense presence does wonder to fulfill his character's needs. After giving two bland performances last year, it is refreshing to see how Damon can balance the action heavy set pieces with the somber emotional moments that can still seep through. While actors like Kinnear, Ryan, Brendan Gleeson as an American intelligence officer on Miller's side, and Jason Issacs as a ground soldier against Miller are very talented, the story doesn't feel like it gives them particularly much to do. Still, they make good on their limited screen time and work well given the limitations.

I won't deny that the film has some chinks in the armor, as the script is lacking and some of the characters are a little lacking on substance, there are still great things to behold here. Grengrass and Damon do deliver a tight thriller that finds a way to tastefully tell a woeful tale. I'm glad that just when I thought I had misjudged this year, there is a film that does fulfills a bit of that promise. I just hope the rest of the year cane make good gain ground after a series of broken promises. ***1/2 / ****; GRADE: B+