‘A Tim Burton Film’ carries with it a certain weight of expectation. ‘Edward Scissorhands’, ‘Beetlejuice’, ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas,’ ‘Sleepy Hollow’… if you’ve seen at least one of those you’ll be familiar with what the 50 year old director brings to the table. So his take on ‘Alice in Wonderland’ sparked fevered anticipation among his followers. However, bringing ‘his take’ to movies has not always worked for Burton (lest we forget ‘The Planet of The Apes’), so what can we expect from this, his first 3D adventure?

A little bit sequel, a little bit ‘reimagining’, the film follows 19 year old Alice (Mia Wasikowska), who has forgotten all about her first trip to Wonderland. As she escapes an unwanted proposal and follows the white rabbit (Michael Sheen) down the rabbit hole, she now finds herself in ‘Underland’, a world ravaged and broken since the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) overthrew the White Queen (Anne Hathaway). Still not remembering her previous visit, she must slay the Red Queen’s fearsome Jabberwocky, with help from various inhabitants including the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp).

As ‘Charlie and The Chocolate Factory’ proved Burton can still be a unique filmmaker without scaring little ones. The beginning sequences- particularly the ‘eat me, drink me’ scene- promise that this is the vision of Carroll’s book that we were hoping for- nightmarish in places but in some twisted way beautiful. Sadly, we don’t get that throughout, but the look is amazing. In particular the costume design and look of each character is stunning. However, the larger vistas (such as the Red Queen’s palace) are so drowned in computer effects it looks somewhat cartoon-like. 

Wasikowska does her job well as the heroine, equal parts curiosity and feistiness, she doesn’t steal the show but provides a solid lead. Depp’s Hatter is a double-edged sword- his split personality and random outbursts befit a more ‘real’ (if there is such a thing) portrayal of the tea-sipping Looney, but even the biggest Depp lover would have to admit he’s in it far too much, becoming Alice’s sidekick towards the end. Hathaway is a little redundant as the White Queen, a role that anyone pretty could have played, and Bonham Carter’s Red Queen is entertaining and funny but lacking in any sort of menace. Along with Depp, the other unique performance is that of Stephen Fry, voicing the Cheshire Cat as if he were the ghost of Rex Harrison.

As a film, there’s nothing terribly wrong with ‘Alice In Wonderland’, but there’s nothing that defines it from a standard epic family movie. What starts well and looks great moves into something that is difficult to really get in to, ending with a climax that could have been pulled from any standard fantasy film. Perhaps it’s asking too much or setting a bar too high, but it’s a disappointingly generic offering from one of cinema’s most original filmmakers.