Tim Burton's Secret Formula

Kinda liked Beetle Juice and kinda liked (to my utter amazement) Sweeney Todd and that's just about it.
 
Let's face it...the guy makes good movies...whether we like them or not. Sure ...we can see his style from a mile away but millions of other viewers are not complaining (or..they do complain but still manage to watch his flicks over and over again).
 
My mom and dad loved big fish! They were crying! Loved it! I didn't get it but the directing was good!
 
I saw Alice in Wonderland. Nice to look at, faux 3D or not. But the whole movie was pretty lifeless.
I wasn't sure I was watching a version of Narnia. Despite the whole premise, and the weirdest looking characters, there was nothing surreal about it. How could that happen with a combination of Lewis Carroll and Burton??

Why is it that lately, any rehash of a classic (i.e. Sherlock Holmes) has to turn into a titanic (this times feminist heroine) battle? YAWN.
 
Geez, Alice in Wonderland will have the biggest opening for a 3D movie, it now has a weekend est of $120M. Crazy, it did $45M friday night.
 
Big Fish was the only movie to nearly give me an anxiety attack... I felt like I was living that long wandering life and approaching death in real-time... along with the movie. It didn't float for me...

Rottentomatoes has Alice at 53%... while I don't agree with RT 100%... I don't usually get much out of any flick that's below 60% on the RT meter.

That's a bummer... I was really looking forward to this... hopefully some of you guys decide it was good.
 
**SPOILER ALERT**






It is what you have come to expect from a Tim Burton flick. Visually dynamic, pronounced and ever-present Danny Elfman score and a bunch of characters you could care less about, unfortunately. I LOVE some aspects of what Tim Burton can do. He can create a distinct "look" like nobody's business. But with his movies, there is always that chance that he is going to forgo storytelling in favor of his production design. The main premise of the story was fine. But, there was very little suspense or build up and a lot of missed opportunities. I would have liked more of a parallel between the "meat(Wonderland)" of the story and the "bookends/(above-ground)" of the flick.

Johnny Depp was as you'd expect. Very right on. And the girl who played Alice was wonderful. I also really liked Helen Bonham Carter as well as Anne Hathaway. They were all good. I just didn't care about any of them (except for Alice.) Anne Hathaway's character had a very amusing "camp" to it and I only wished that she was either directed NOT to do that or the rest of the cast WAS. Personally, I think that would have been a good direction to go because I really enjoyed her performance and the "Princess Bride" feel she gave to the movie, but it didn't match the tone of everyone elses performance choices. That's on the director. And why did Crispin Glover's character move like a robot? It was so unrealistic, unnecessary and it took me right out of the movie. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, it is probably because he is a playing card. But, it wasn't fully pulled off because I'm just realizing that now.

Overall, it wasn't horrible. Just disappointing. It could have been so much more. For all his talent, Tim Burton frustrates me. I'm getting tired of expecting so much more than I wind up getting. It feels a bit like Burton is Lucy Van Pelt and I am Charlie Brown running to kick the football. And, you all know how that turns out.
 
Whoa, awesome, the guy playing Tim Burton's in my movie! Great actor. Encourage anyone in NYC to hire him.
 
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