[Ghoulish Delight]

I'm torn.

On the one hand, there were major flaws. The fact that it was a linear narrative was a major negative, and on top of that the narrative itself was not good. Heavy handed, self important, and generally uninteresting.

That said, I thought there were genuinely good things about this movie, things that made me like it more than any Burton movie in a long long time. While the specific tale that was told I could do without, I liked a lot of the underlying structure it happened in. I was surprised at how on board I was with delving into the Hatter's madness, and with the geo-political bent on Wonderland. There were moments in there, like when the Hatter saw the nose fall off and noticed everyone else's fakery, that were really really good. Unfortunately, it all got taken too far, too ham-fisted, too grandiose.

Where this movie succeeded, it succeeded because it was ambitious. Unlike most of Burton's recent crap, he seemed to be TRYING to add something new. Hatter as leader of underground rebellion was far more of a creative leap than anything in Charlie and the Chocolate factory. The result was flawed, and the bulk of the plot was largely not ambitious. But anything truly ambitious is bound to be flawed as the idea is to reach beyond what is obvious.

That's not to say I thought it was a good movie. It's flaws were many, and unforgivable. I had forgotten about the talk of the dance at the end. Holy crap, atrocious. Just to name the worst.

So sadly, even Burton's best effort in over a decade...is still a pretty big disappointment, with some vague glimmers of good.