Tag Archive | "Tim Burton"
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Review: ALICE IN WONDERLAND is a Wasted Opportunity — But it’s Still Worth Seeing
Posted on 04 March 2010
Three Torches (Out of Five)
We know Alice in Wonderland is a Tim Burton movie, but exactly which kind of Tim Burton movie is it?
Is it the sublime kind that uses stunning, off-kilter visuals to tell a quirky, but fully realized story, like Edward Scissorshands, Sleepy Hollow, or Beetlejuice?
Or is it the incoherent-mess kind, where Burton’s stunning trademark visuals are wasted on an indifferent or outright sloppy script, like Planet of the Apes, James and the Giant Peach, Mars Attacks!, Big Fish, or 9?
The truth is, it’s not really either.
To be sure, it’s visually fantastic. Whether it’s the smiling, levitating Cheshire Cat, Matt Lucas as Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, or the wonderfully oversized head on the Queen of Hearts, Wonderland — or “Underland,” as it’s called here — has never looked so good.
And just like so many recent Tim Burton movies, the story is infuriatingly weak.
But weirdly, the movie is worth seeing anyway.
Here is the story: in the 19th century, 19 year-old Alice, faced with a life of unbearable convention, follows a rabbit down a rabbit hole. There she finds a magical dreamland where someone named “Alice” once visited before. Is it her? It matters, because that Alice is prophesied to slay the evil Jabberwocky.
That’s the whole story. There’s some very vague talk about how Alice needs to learn that something can be “impossible” and “real” at the same time in order to be more like her dead father, but honestly, the movie doesn’t even bother giving us the slightest reason to care about Alice or her quest.
As is typical with Burton, it’s all about the visuals.
But as I said, the movie is worth watching anyway. I think it’s because it’s such a wonderfully weird Wonderland — er, Underland — and for such an iconic place, it’s never really been so successfully visually realized before. It’s not just that everything here looks so cool; it’s that it also has a perfect visual coherence.
In short, everything fits together perfectly.
What else works? Helena Bonham Carter, who has long seemed to have been slumming in her husband Tim Burton’s movies, absolutely shines here as the Queen of Hearts. She’s hilarious, shrieking “off with their heads” at every opportunity — and the image of her over-sized head (about which she is understandably very sensitive) is fascinating in itself.
Johnny Depp, in an expanded Mad Hatter role, basically plays Edwards Scissorshands crossed with Willy Wonky. And Anne Hathoway is all hand flutters as The White Queen.
Twenty five years ago, Disney famously fired Tim Burton, because they thought his short film Frankenweenie, was too scary for kids. It’s now a cult classic, and the studio has hired Burton back for this production, which reportedly cost an astounding $250 million dollars.
They’re sure to make their money back, as the project, which has been wildly (but cleverly) hyped, is certain to be a big, big hit.
So it seems that Tim Burton and Disney are both getting their happy endings.
Does the audience? Oh, kinda.
But in a way, it’s a shame, because with visuals as fully realized as the ones in this movie, Alice in Wonderland had the potential to become almost as much of a classic as the books upon which it is based.
It isn’t — not by a long shot.
Tim Burton to film DARK SHADOWS with Johnny Depp as Barnabas
Posted on 08 December 2009
According to Sci Fi Wire, the next movie Tim Burton directs will be the long-rumored film version of the gothic 1960s soap opera Dark Shadows, starring Johnny Depp as the vampire Barnabas.
“We’re actually going to shoot that film next September/October with Tim Burton and Johnny,” producer Graham King told the website in a group interview last Friday in Los Angeles. “We’ve been working on the script a lot, even though he’s working on Alice [in Wonderland, Burton's next film, coming in March]. We’ve been given a script. John August wrote the first screenplay. We’re making some changes, but the film’s going to be in production, as I say, September or October of next year.”
Dark Shadows was something of a phenomenon for much of its 1966-1971 run on ABC: a soap opera that included supernatural characters such as ghosts, vampires, and werewolves, and plot elements such as time travel and alternate dimensions. It has since become a cult classic.
Tim Burton has long been a fan of the show, considering it an influence on his work.
The director and Johnny Depp have made many fantasy films together, including Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissorshands, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
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ALICE IN WONDERLAND Photos Prove Tim Burton is Going Waaaaay Down the Rabbit-Hole
Posted on 09 July 2009
The last few weeks have seen the release of a series of cast photos and conceptual art from the upcoming Tim Burton production of Alice in Wonderland, coming in March 2010 and starring Johnny Depp (as the Mad Hatter), Helena Bonham Carter (as the Red Queen), Matt Lucas (as Tweedledee and Tweedledum), and Anne Hathaway (as the White Queen).
Not surprisingly for Burton, it looks like it will be visually incredible. Will the movie be any good? That, of course, is a completely different question.
Hat tip: /flim
Tim Burton is Waaaaaay Over-Rated
Posted on 23 February 2009
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Tim Burton is currently filming a live-action version of Alice in Wonderland for Disney starring Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway, and I know I should be excited because it’s another high-profile fantasy film, based on one of my favorite children’s books.
I should be excited, but I’m not, because I can say with almost absolute certainty that while Alice in Wonderland will look amazing, it will be a terrible movie.
Why? Because Tim Burton in the director.
First, let me concede a couple of things up front: Burton has a great, almost revolutionary visual style. Whether or not he was personally responsible for the terrific look of the stop-motion films such as Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas that bear his name (which is apparently debatable), there’s no question that he’s brought an incredible aesthetic to moviegoers in films such as Sleepy Hollow , Beetle Juice, and Edward Scissorshands.
And these three at least are actually great movies, among my favorites of all time.
Tim Burton
But a great visual style does not a great director make. And as this particular director has become more powerful, with presumably more input over his scripts, his movies have become increasingly incoherent.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the book by Roald Dahl, is admittedly high on concept but light on plot. But for the first thirty minutes of Burton’s 2005 film version, the director managed to find the story.
But then the kids enter the chocolate factory, Charlie virtually disappears from the plot, and the whole film sinks in a river of oppressive musical numbers and a thoroughly unappealing, decidedly unmagical Willy Wonka. And what a crappy ending! Wonka makes chocolate because his dentist father wouldn’t let him eat candy — and it’s up to Charlie to help Wonka reconcile with his father? Really?
Then there is the trio of stop-motion animated films that bear Burton’s name: Nightmare, James and the Giant Peach, and Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. Nightmare is by far the most successful of the three, and the film has an admittedly terrific central conceit with one holiday “town” infiltrating another, not to mention fantastic songs. But then, right on schedule, the plot frustrations begin. Why do Lock, Stock, and Barrel deliver Santa to Oogie Boogie? Why is Jack so clueless as to think that kids will appreciate his macabre presents? How does he survive the crash after the military shoot him down?
It’s hard to care about a story when you get the sense that even the director doesn’t care.
And let’s not even get started on the remake of The Planet of the Apes, okay? And Big Fish? Honestly, did that make sense to anyone?
There is risky, sophisticated storytelling, and there’s just plain sloppy writing, like the director had other things to think about rather than story. Which Burton obviously does — the visual “look” of the films, which is always flawless.
Often Burton’s films aren’t just incoherent, they’re actually unpleasant to sit through, like he’s literally decided to punish the audience for some reason. Burton seems to be deliberately trying to disgust us in Batman Returns.
Burton’s worst film is probably Mars Attacks!, which managed to waste one of the most amazing casts ever assembled (Glenn Close, Annette Benning, Jack Black, Michael J. Fox, Jack fricking Nicholson, etc.?) with scene after scene of aliens, well, attacking, and a litany of boorish, unfunny jokes.
Mars Attacks
Burton’s frequent misfires rarely connect with audiences, but inexplicably, they’re often well-reviewed by critics. No doubt this goes back to their visual style, which is admittedly stunning. It’s impossible not to be impressed by the technical wizardry, and I suppose some credit is due to Burton because of this. Indeed, Ed Wood was so visually impressive, and the subject matter was so unorthodox, that it was almost enough to forgive the film for having yet another terrible, incoherent screenplay.
Almost.
Isn’t the point of atmosphere and visual effects is to serve the story? They’re far too often lacking in a Tim Burton film, and it’s high time the world started calling him on it.
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