Alice In Wonderland

I was surprised by how quickly I became complacent of the 3D IMAX experience whilst I was watching this film. At first, it was once again astonishing (as it had been for Avatar), but you begin to forget it, or take it for granted. you live inside the film, as it were, as if it was a play or real life. You see the full dimensions of characters interacting with their scenery, but because this is what you do everyday, you quickly begin to overlook it. I wonder if the really astonishing thing is actually 2D, and the effort it takes to make us think that's real. Anyway, aside from the interest in the technology, I have to hesitate before saying whether the film is any good or not. You may have heard that it is not a retelling of Lewis Carroll's book. It inhabits that world, but is more of a continuation rather than an adaptation. It also includes elements from his other books. The main problem I had with the film is that it makes sense. This may be a strange complaint, but the essence of Carroll's world was that it was absurd. There was no over-arching plot to be followed, merely incidental ones. Tim Burton gives the film a narrative, which I'm sure Carroll would have detested. There is a quest feel to the movie, and a conventional battle scene at the end. So, I can't say that I like or what see the film again, but what was Burton's aim with the movie? He appropriates the iconic moments of the books, and then deploys them in his own narrative. Characters are given motives and back-stories, essentially contradicting the original intention of Carroll. Of course the film is enjoyable (I don't know what children would make of it), and we shouldn't get hung up on whether or not it does justice to its original, but there's something perfunctory and empty about the experience, which left me relatively unchanged when I exited the cinema.