Ever since I had first caught wind of the fact that Tim Burton was set to film his own adaptation of 'Alice in Wonderland', I have been dying to watch it. I mean, who better to film such a whimsical, eccentric tale as Alice In Wonderland, than the master of eccentricities and quirkiness himself, Tim Burton! Stunning cinematography and visual effects aside, Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' is a horrible disappointment. A tragic failure. A movie so ridiculously bad, even the acting prowess of a stellar cast which includes the likes of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway can't save. I watched 'Alice' feeling like I was watching a kindergarten play that was created haphazardly in a matter of hours - it was disorganized, it was frenetic, it was nonsensical. Maybe that was the whole point of the movie really, to be as nonsensical as possible - afterall, it is WONDERLAND, a place where everything and anything seems possible and liable to go awfully wrong. But know, it was a painful experience watching this movie and I had to struggle to curb the urge leave the theatre half way through it. Honestly, its been a long time since I had ever felt this way with regards to any movie! A great achievement really!
ANYWAY, the main thing I hated about 'Alice' was the way Tim Burton turned an original movie that was whimsical, kooky but sophisticated into a superficial, pointless retelling that had no heart to the story at all. The script was the killer - the plot was paper thin and highly highly contrived, the lines were awfully bad, the jokes were awfully flat. It didn't feel like there was a story at all, which is awfully sad because every good movie tells a fantastic story. Without a good story, your movie sucks really. At the end of the day, there just wasn't any point with this retelling of the classic story of 'Alice' at all. Just a pointless, unnecessary movie - it feels as though Tim Burton only made this movie to jump onto the 3D bandwagon made popular due to the tremendous success of Avatar so as to make tonnes of money. If doesn't feel as though he placed much effort into making this movie at all. Ultimately, what you get is a film that's perfect on paper, but went awfully wrong in its execution. Definitely one of the biggest disappointments of all time.
Now onto the film that I ENJOYED! Dreamworks' 'HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON' is FANTASTIC. I think I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed Avatar! While it certainly left me wishing the movie was longer than its actually length, and also hoping that sequels would be produced. But anyway, this movie totally rocks my socks and I strongly recommend it. I'm so glad I got to watch this movie before flying off to the UK and US though, because I don't think I would be willing to fork out money to watch movies in these countries - movie tickets cost a bomb there!
'How to train your dragon' has quite a classic, simple storyline. Its your typical coming of age story, about a young Viking boy called Hiccup who find's himself as sorta an outcast in Viking society: here he is, a smart, funny, scrawny kid living in a society of brawny, gruff, uncouth Men who hunt dragons for a living. (Sorta like me living in this world really. Sigh.) As he desperately tries ways to fit in by attempting to kill a dragon, he unwittingly befriends one and ultimately changes the course of his tribe's existence and becomes the hero that he was destined to be. Its a very very overused but realistic story, the subplots of Boy&Pet, HeroicFather vs WimpySon and GeekgetsFierceGirl also adding to the cliche factor of this movie. But what it has, is amazing depth and heart. I think every human looks a good story about relationships, whether its between Boy&Girl, Child&Parent, Man&Beast or in this case, all three kinds of relationships. Everyone would come out of this movie wishing he had his own Night Fury to fly on. But its not all a happy ending fairy tale - I love the bittersweet ending of this film. Its not tragic, but there's a tinge of realistic sadness at the end of it.
The visuals in this film are just awesome. The long epic shots of Hiccup riding his dragon Toothless are reminiscent of the beautiful aerial shots of Jake flying in his Banshees in Avatar. In fact, come to think of it, the plot of 'Dragon' is sorta like that of Avatar! But that aside, 'Dragon' is a good film too, because it also preaches so many other things that are relevant to modern society - Peace vs Violence as a way to settle problems, respecting nature vs destroying it, intelligence vs brawn. I think everybody should strive to be like Hiccup. Very often society doesn't need another person who conforms to it - what society really needs is someone who dares to be a radical, who dares to be totally different, who dares to move in the opposite direction, to take that bold step to be somebody different - and in doing so, discover that life and society doesn't always have to be the way it is. As Hiccup exclaims in the movie about the dragons, 'everything we know about you guys is wrong!' I think there are many truths out there that are only temporal and will eventual be proven to be wrong. Its up to those rare few with THE GIFT to revolutionize the way we see, do or think.
Ultimately, 'How To Train Your Dragon' is a film that appears childish on paper, but is extremely mature in its execution. Its a film that's adventurous, fun and a delight to watch. I hope that we'll see this dragons again because they provide a hell of a roarin' good time.
