The book Alice in Wonderland was originally authored and published by Lewis Carrol way back in 1865, and the surreal story makes it one of the most beloved children's stories in history. It was popularized back in the 50's when Disney created the animated film. Due to the bizzarre nature of the setting and characters, the book has often been linked to a variety of narcotics and hallucinogencis, notably opium and LSD.

Back in 2010: This is Tim Burton's most recent film, and following modern trends, makes heavy use of CGI and is meant for viewing through 3D technology. The movie is a sequel to the old Alice in Wonderland stories we are familiar with, she is twenty years old and can't remember her excursions into Wonderland that she undertook as a child. When a snooty British lordling proposes to her, Alice runs into the nearby woods, falls down a rabbit hole, and enters Wonderland. The beauty of the falling scene carries on well into every other part of the film, just like Avatar, this movie is fun to just look at. The majority of characters are fully or partially CGI developed, so this opens doors for stellar voice acting. Alan Rickmanvoices the Caterpillar, Christopher Lee voices the Jabberwocky, and the Cheshire Cat is voiced by my favourite, Steven Fry. For those CGI characters, the design is generally good, especially with Cheshire.

There's some pretty good performances acting wise with the human characters. Mia Wasikowski is Alice; I wasn't too fond of her at first but she fills out the role okay by the end. Johnny Depp, who possibly attracted the most attention for his performance in the movie, is the Mad Hatter. While he wasn't terrible I felt that his acting in this was too similarily evoking Willy Wonka at most parts, another role he did in a Tim Burton movie. Anne Hathaway makes an appearance and although I think she's a good actress and pretty damn hot, she did not get much to work with. The real star of the movie is Helena Carter who plays the Red Queen. She is supposed to be a kind of grown up spoiled brat and managed to handle the role well without it getting annoying.

It seems I'm piling on praise but this isn't true. The story is really unimpressive and only follows Tim Burton's descending quality of films he has released in the past few years. It jumps around too much, not allowing you to feel attatched to any characters. Fluditiy is bad and you'll find yourself not really caring, or even noticing, when a big plot change takes place.

This is also advertised asa pretty dark film but I didn't find it so. I would have appreciated a few more scares thrown out there, and have some of the characters more menacing, maybe include some blood and gore instead of conforming to the wider appealing PG rating they were trying to hit.

The movie is good, but nothing great. I'd reccomend seeing it in movie theatres (preferrably 3D) just because of the enchanting visuals. Otherwise dimming the lights, muting it, and playing some Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin in the background would be a great way to compliment these visuals. Overall I give the movie a 3/5, see it for the eye candy but don't expect much from the story or depth of most characters.