2/10

This movie has taken a lovely set of tales full of timeless thought-provoking wonder and turned them into dreary, sombre, lifeless, boring dirge. All of the intellect and magic of the original has been sucked dry out of the film. Burton's fairytale friendly directing style could have made a cult legend of a movie on a scale comparable with The Wizard of Oz, but (like Spielberg) he's stuck in a creative rut and his touch is poison. The story did not need to be modified and it did not need to be so slow and dark in both tone and appearance. Everyone in the movie looks bored and the 3-D effects are like pretty but tasteless icing on a boring cake.

I'm writing this review about a year after I watched the movie in 2-D at home. I can't even admit watching the whole movie, as I was bored senseless by parts and wondered out to check my email and refill my wine glass. Perhaps I missed something important about this movie, but I doubt it.

This movie was the second big attempt to push the latest 3-D technology after the wild success of Avatar. The fact that both of these movies are in 3-D and they both stink on ice confirms that special effects alone cannot make a good movie. How can movie directors and writers be so dumb and distracted by special effects technology that they neglect absolutely everything else that is required to make a good movie?

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