Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland 3D

The idea of making a sequel to Alice in Wonderland is a great idea (calling it the same name not so great) or making a 2nd sequel since Alice Through the Looking Glass already exists. The problem with Tim Burton's film is that it's not very good... in fact it's bad. Nothing that interesting happens in it, set 12 years after the original, Alice is about to be forced into being engaged, unsure of what to do she runs off, following the white rabbit once again down the hole into Wonderland. The film then rehashes introducing the various characters featured in the original with the adding to the story that Alice has to defeat the jabberwocky and in doing so will get rid of the evil red queen, who replaced the good white queen (who is obviously good because she is dress all in white). They made the Mad Hatter pretty much the main character, when he's originally just a side character, I know you've got Johnny Depp playing him but it just didn't work. There was also a weird romantic sexual tension between Alice and the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) which was really not needed (because of the huge age differences). This film brings nothing new to the Alice mythos, the animation and world is poorly done, the cut sequences in the final fantasy games on the PlayStation one are better than any of the poorly done graphics in this film.

The 3D is the worst 3D film I have seen... I don't understand why they even made it 3D, it brought absolutely nothing to the film. (On a side note I watched abit of Colaline on a new 3D TV in a virgin media store the other day and it was pretty impressive as I didn't really believe a 3D TV would work or be as effective.)

Not one of Tim Burtons finest films. 1 Star

On another note Inglourious Basterds [DVD] [2009] is £5.99 on DVD on Amazon.co.uk

&

The Hurt Locker [DVD] [2008] is £7

&

Drag Me to Hell [DVD] [2009] is £5 on DVD on Amazon.co.uk and £9.99 on blueray.

Avatar

The hype for this film has been going on for a long time in film magazines, so I had been joking that it would be really funny if was a steaming pile of crap. Or that peoples reactions would be that they thought it was crap because that can happen if people are looking forward to a film too much they are let down because they have built it up in their minds(Phantom Menace, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull although they had Jar Jar & Shia Labeouf to mess things up). Avatar far exceeded my expectations, it was fun, soppy, violent, sad and mind blowing. The 12 ish years wait for a new James Cameron movie was worth it for this. There have been some very good 3D movies this year - UP, Bolt, Coraline but I would say this is the first proper movie that isn't animated for 3D, hopefully this will encourage other film makers to be willing to use similar technology and isn't just used to make more Bloody Valentines.
Avatar is basically Pocahontas (for romance and basic story) mixed with Aliens (for violence, marines and sci-fi) the combination is classic James Cameron. Maybe a little too many trade marks put in there with the Marines and exo-machines but the film would be no where as cool without them. Wasn't expecting Sigourney Weaver to play such a big part, but it was nice to see her play more than a cameo and a character unlike Ripley(only somewhat) probably her best performance since Aliens. Sam Worthington is still unknown enough that seeing him doesn't make you think of other films, which I think makes you get drawn into the film more.
The planet Pandora is such a beautiful planet I want to leave earth now and move there and live with the blue creatures. This is the second time this year I've been cheering for the Aliens to kill the evil humans, the first time being with District 9. The film did feel long but at 2 hours 40 minutes - it didn't feel that long.

Five Stars