Bottom Line: Disney’s new Alice in Wonderland was a decent movie, but nothing to write home about. It didn’t feel like Wonderland, despite excellent character realization and beautiful visuals.

Midway through the movie, I realized that I wasn’t going to get what I wanted out of Alice. I didn’t think about it much going in, but eventually I realized that the thing I had been most looking forward to in a 3D rendition of Alice in Wonderland was disorientation. I wanted to feel like I really fell down the rabbit hole in the figurative sense, but instead it was just another adventure movie (albeit casted by some wonderfully weird characters). The story was predictable, and Wonderland should never have anything to do with that word.

Don’t get me wrong, the movie did have a few things going for it:

• Beautiful visuals – the Red Queen’s castle was really something, and their realization of the look of the Wonderland characters was excellent.
• Most of the characters themselves were fantastic. I absolutely adored the March Hare. Also of note, the Cheshire Cat was impeccably cat-like, the Tweedles were the perfect blend of endearing and odd, and Depp did a surprisingly excellent job with the Hatter.

I really wish they had just stuck with the original story, and I’m not even a huge Alice in Wonderland fan. They just didn’t capture me with the plot they chose – it was the only bland thing about the movie. Had they taken those characters and put them in a really good, really Wonderlandy story, the movie would have been something special.