8 years after Joel Schumacer and company tarnished the Batman name with the childish mess that was "Batman and Robin", Christopher Nolan finally brought Bruce Wayne to life with Batman Begins.
Batman Begins tells the story of Bruce Wayne's emergence from tragically scarred child to a symbol of heroism and darkness in a wonderfully realized Gotham City. After training with Ra's al Ghul, Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham in perfect mental and physical shape. What Nolan and screenwriter David Goyer do perfectly here, is inject Bruce Wayne with an emotion never before seen in a Batman movie. You can feel the pain and grief Wayne is experiencing and you can see why he decides to become a living symbol of good.
The first full origin story for Batman on film, Batman Begins gets everything absolutely right. The film is very much told from Bruce's point of view, as opposed to earlier Batman movies that focused more heavily on developing villains than developing the hero himself. With this approach you can clearly understand the emotions and motivations of the man behind the mask. The origin is also utterly believable. You can see why Bruce Wayne dresses like a bat, why he needs a cape, how he gets a super-car and super-gadgets, and why he hides in a cave. Still, Begins doesn't get too carried away with realism, retaining a comic book flair that its successor would forget.
While it does take a bit for Bruce Wayne to fully become the bat, it is worth it. There are a few jaw-dropping action scenes including a brilliant batmobile chase scene and a thrilling climax on Gotham's elevated trains. The atmosphere and feeling of Gotham City is nearly perfect. It has a bit of the Gothic look of Tim Burton's Batman universe blended beautifully with a more contemporary cityscape. The city feels like what a comic book world would be like if it actually existed. Batman himself is a dark, brooding, wonderfully realized character in his own right and he shares the screen with an ensemble of great actors, all giving great performances.
Batman Begins never loses a beat. The origin of Batman is engaging, engrossing, and exciting from start to finish. It's great to see how Batman became the legend he is today, and even more fun to see Batman in action. The Scarecrow villain is a little underutilized and it takes a while for Bruce Wayne to truly become Batman, but other than that, Batman Begins is a perfect Batman film.
Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is a sequel and not a retelling of the original children's novels by Lewis Carroll. In this film, Alice is now 19-years old, and soon after the death of her father, is proposed to be married away. Feeling pressured, she runs off, following a white rabbit, which leads her to Wonderland, a place she only vaguely remembers from childhood. There, she meets past familiar faces as the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the Blue Caterpillar (Alan Rickman), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), and eventually the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), who has been terrorizing the land with her harsh rule and beheading of heads. Alice finds out that her destiny is to end the Red Queen's rule by slaying the queen's dragon, Jabberwocky, as written in the prophesy. Along the way she meets up with all sorts of colorful characters.
If you remember, Steven Spielberg's Hook was the live action sequel to Peter Pan. Similarly, Tim Burton's film is very much like a close cousin, except it's about Alice. The progression of the story is also kind of similar, where the main character, Alice, like Peter, must rediscover herself and finally defeat her nemesis. Likewise, both films are both elaborately staged, they are both about growing up and making choices, and there's a big showdown. Chances are if one liked Hook, one will find many things to like about Alice.
Tim Burton's version of the Wonderland's environments are gorgeous, imaginatively created, lots of colorful details, and breathes life. The castles are sleek and intricately designed. The creatures are generally live versions (CG) of the Disney's previous animated version, and they're even more odder and fun to look at. I particularly loved the portrayal of the Chesire Cat in this film, and the way he snakes through midair like water feels very natural, although it wouldn't feel so natural in real life. Only complaint I may have in terms of visuals would probably be where we see CG versions of natural creatures like dogs--they're not particularly stylized so their CG-ness can be more noticeable.
Danny Elfman's score fits the environment just right, giving added intensity when needed. This film is essentially Tim Burton's playground and even if there wasn't any story, it still would be plenty of fun to just watch the loony characters in their environment. I will add that 3-D aspect of it helped a lot.
Johnny Depp plays the Mad Hatter with usual gusto, as he brings much energy and quirkiness to such an oddball character. I suppose there is a mix of Willy Wonka and Jack Sparrow in there somewhere. Given that other characters are mostly or completely CG, Johnny Depp's character can feel a bit of out of place, as he still feels human. Helena Bonham Carter as the big-headed (literally) Red Queen is fun, expressive, and extremely likable for such a short-tempered character. Mia Wasikowska is particularly noteworthy as Alice, which she plays with free-spirited pluckiness, charm, and beauty.
The story, admittedly, is a simple one, although it is to the story's credit that Alice is now an adult--it helps since many happenings in Wonderland can be quite unfriendly, bizarre, and grotesque. Thankfully, no more worries about some dream causing some lifelong trauma to some poor child. I also appreciated the fact that her Wonderland, like dreams, is an extension of her frustrations with the "real" world, where she felt she had many "expectations" from outside forces. At the same time, it's not like Where the Wild Things Are, where other characters are actually projections of real-life people from the main character's life. For example, to read Mad Hatter as an extension of her father feels a bit like a stretch, although the Red Queen could possibly represent her future mother-in-law since they both dislike animals. Certainly, one can merely enjoy it at face value and the creativity of this world and be fine with it.