Pun Salad

Usually when I go against the Critical Consensus, it's when I'm not impressed by a movie that everyone else loved. This is the opposite: it had mediocre rankings from critics and IMDBers, but I liked it quite a bit.

It is (more or less) a sequel to Lewis Carroll's works. Alice is a young lady, and is surprised by a marriage proposal from an upper-class twit. Bewildered about what to do, she falls back down the rabbit hole, and …

It's live action, with plenty of CGI to illustrate the denizens of Wonderland. Carroll was content to let Alice wander around and experience all the bizarreness and off-kilter wordplay. It's quite different here: the filmmakers decided to make Alice an action hero. This worked for me, but I can understand how purists might object.

Mia Wasikowska is wonderful as Alice, who gradually finds her proper role in the goings-on. Also on hand is Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the evil "Red Queen", Anne Hathaway as the good "White Queen", and a host of others. There are plenty of jokes and sight gags, but (on the other hand) the good guys are in actual peril, and Alice is the only person who can save the day.