SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Dreadfully Boring

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A few years ago, striking when the iron was hot in the wake of the "Wicked" phenomenon, the SciFi channel released a miniseries entitled "Tin Man", which put a darker, more science-fictiony spin on the classic Oz tale. This "Alice" effort, once again capitalizing on the buzz surrounding the Johnny Depp-starring Alice movie that is soon coming to theaters, does much of the same, but fails to maintain the bar set by its predecessor.The biggest problem comes in the area of acting. Though the "Alice" cast is by no means terrible, they pale in comparison to the great actors in "Tin Man". While Caterina Scorsone plays a decent lead character as Alice, she doesn't bring the sort of energy that Zooey Deschanel brought to Dorothy, by comparison. The series also suffers from a lack of a very interesting, likable main character, with "Hatter" once again not living up to the performance of Dorothy's side-kick "Glitch".Another area where this film is lacking is in the emotional department. At the end of "Tin Man", I actually felt as if I cared about each of the main characters and really wanted to see how they would "turn out". I had no such feelings at the end of Alice, as even a superb final scene couldn't change the fact that the characters hadn't really been developed enough to really feel for them.So, while this miniseries did provide the usual fare, such as crazy creatures and nice little nods to Lewis Carroll's classic tale, it didn't do much else in terms of character development or outstanding plot points. If you're into the homage sort of thing than you will find it decent, as I did, but don't expect to be blown away.

I'm rather surprised that this version of Alice isn't rated much much better, since in my humble opinion Alice TV mini-series are like the best thing. OK, I'll give you that special effects aren't top notch, and there are definitely things in the series which could have been better, but overall it's still one heck of an awesome and enjoyable series to watch, re-watch and then watch it again. First of all, Alice the TV mini series is a modern take on the original story. There are numerous mentions of the original Alice of the Legend, but the story does not dwell on that and rather follows a modern day young woman, named Alice of cause, as she gets to Wonderland. And these modern takes plus some well applied canons from the source story is really fun to watch. Remember flamingos? One just must see 'em in this one LOL. Secondly, but certainly not last, all the main actors on the series did a wonderful job with their respective characters, making 'em as real and memorable as possible. Alice is great. Jack is great. But best of all is Hatter. And IMO that is the BEST Hatter ever. So summarizing, if you haven't seen this one yet, go and see it right NOW. Don't let some not so superb special effects to put you off of the series - it's not about the special effects at all, but about the story and storytelling. And one could hardly complain about both of 'em.

After watching Tin Man I expected Alice to be much of the same. Indeed this mini series does the same thing, a re-telling of a classic fairy tale and here is is Alice in Wonderland, It changes things so you do get a different story but still with many references to the original story and characters. Although fantasy and fairy tales movies in more modern settings rarely work for me, this movie does the job well. It has enough fantasy elements and depth to keep me interested and intrigued until the end. Children probably won't enjoy it as it dark and confusing at times but definitely not as complex as the original story. While not perfect it's enjoyable and worth several views.

Nick Willing did do a version of Alice In Wonderland that was pretty decent. Then he decided to make a newer version. One that takes place a lot longer in the future. Plus the fact that Wonderland is very different. Imagine Wonderland not being so beautiful but more of an updated poor trashy industrial feel. All the characters are human; including the white rabbit and the caterpillar. Yes he does have a nice all star cast, but he also made the Cheshire Cat show up for a split second and added a serial killer with a porcelain rabbit head. Also did I mention that Alice knows karate. Anyways, it was an interesting take on the story, but the movie was just too boring at parts. Kathy Bates did make a great Red Queen and I really enjoyed Andrew Lee Potts as the Hatter. But everyone else was just up to par. Caterina Scorsone plays Alice and she was OK, but to me, she didn't really seem girly enough. The whole story of this film really seemed pretty interesting and I wanted it to work, but like I said, it was just too boring at parts.