Being Burton, he's set the action thirteen years later, as a teenage Alice (Wasikowska, the best thing in the film) heads back to the surreal underworld full of raging Queens, frantic rabbits, stoned caterpillars, disappearing Cheshire cats and - in this case - one very mad Mad Hatter. The latter is played, of course, by Johnny Depp, Burton's Tyler Durden, the two having now made seven films together.
THE VERDICT: The latest in a very long line of adaptations of Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel, Tim Burton taking on Alice In Wonderland would seem like a match made in heaven. Opening weekend box-office heaven, at least.
The Mad Hatter spends much of the film trying to think of words that begin with the letter M. Well, when I thought about the film afterwards, the word masterpiece didn't spring to mind. Nor magical, magnificent or even mainstream (Burton and Depp will be happy about that one). Mischievous, maybe, and macabre, naturally, but definitely muddled too. Verging on a mess.
Not Charlie And The Chocolate Factory bad, but close.
Rating : 2/5
Review by Paul Byrne