Go ask Alice.
So I don't know about anyone else that watched this last night (or, indeed, if anyone even did...) but what I came into this basically expecting was another 'Tin Man'. Which, as most of you may be aware, I quite enjoyed.
But yeah, from the commericials, I was assuming this would just be the same for Alice In Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass that 'Tin Man' was for Wizard of Oz - a fleshed out, slightly darker, slightly trippier, kinda weird, at times not the best written and with some questionable special effects reimagining. Which is pretty much exactly what it was.
Only I liked 'Tin Man' a lot, lot better.
It's kind of sad, because there are a lot of things about 'Alice' I really want to like. The titled character herself, for example. She's snappy and determined with some easy to understand background issues. (Also, I love her outfit.) Unfortunatly, she doesn't really get to do much, or make many choices to showcase why we should identify with her. She's a well-written character that's been consigned to window dressing. All she really does is make WTF eyes as the Hatter drags her around.
Which brings me to my second major problem - Hatter. I don't like him. I get that I'm supposed to, that he's clearly supposed to come off as something of a charming, unscrupulous rogue...but I ain't buying it. I don't think the actor's very good, quite frankly, or if he is, I wouldn't guess that from this performance. I can never get what this guy is feeling, or thinking. He keeps switching motivations, switching excuses, and it never seems the least bit believable or hell, anything other than nonsensical, when he does. There's no understanding this character - not because he's layered or deep (which I think he was supposed to be) but because he seems to do exactly what the plot dictates as needed, with no bothering to explain or explore what that means to his character. Also, it's fairly obvious there's supposed to be an Alice/Hatter alt-ship set up, which...look, as much as I adore Alice/Hatter in bri_chan's fanart and work and what have you, I'm beginning to wonder where exactly this conceit came from that every reimagining featuring a darker or more grownup Alice has to automatically pair her off with the Mad Hatter. Because it's kinda starting to come off as lazy writing, or like everyone's stealing from each other because they can (I wouldn't even classify this as "homage". "Homage" has more love and effort attached to it. This still reads to me as just plain copying). I don't really buy this Alice and this Hatter as a couple, either. The characters don't have enough chemistry - Hatter barely has any chemistry on his own, forget a romantic subplot. It just smacks of two characters being smushed together because they're of opposite genders, spend a lot of time together, and because they can.
Frankly, I like Alice/Jack a lot better - and dear god, I do hope this storyline resolves with them getting back together, instead of her dumping him for Hatter. That is the one thing I like that I think this story did right actually: I honestly can't tell which way they're going on that one. As of this point, there are significant enough clues that both men have feelings toward her, and I could see believable endings with either outcome (not that I wouldn't like one a lot better than the other, as mentioned, but well, there you go). Jack is a much better actor, anyway, and he comes off as much more charming and complicated in two scenes than Hatter does in the majority of two hours. It was pretty clear that he was trying as best he could to tell Alice he didn't mean any of things he said when he talked to her; it was hard to tell whether she got it or not, but I kinda hope she did. She seems a smart enough character otherwise, and I'd hate for her to get hit with the plot-relative stupid stick just for the sake of creating unnecessary character tension and drama ("But Jack said he didn't looove me! How can I ever trust him, or anyone ever, now??").
That is the one thing about 'Alice' - all of the background actors and characters are very good, or at least very enjoyable. I loved Matt Frewer's White Knight; he was a hilarious delight. Kathy Bates is great as the Queen of Hearts (which can't be all that easy, given the fantastic amounts of melted cheese the writers and director seem to have thrown all over the role). Tim Curry as the Dodo was...okay, for all of the five minutes that we saw him (that character had better have a role to play in the second half tomorrow night, or I may just annoyedly write that one off as one of the most pointless cameos ever).
Really, it's the little things that are getting me by at this point. I liked the Carpenter's delivery on that line of "The time has come, Walrus, to test our many stills...", which thanks to that came off as clever and captivating rather than the eye-rolling hot mess it could've been (I may just be crazy, but I'm actually getting a fairly strong vibe that reminds me of Jamie and Adam from Mythbusters off of those two, for some reason - it's weird). Alessandro Juliani, believe it or not, is there - he's in a role where he's had all of three maybe lines and has to wear a stupid hat and hang around in the background looking serious while all this crazy shit is going on...and, really, babe, I hope the SyFy channel pays well. I really, really hope it does. I even liked the White Rabbit (although, really, pigtails? You know, because the audience couldn't have been expected to realize that a guy dressed all in white, muttering about being late, and leading Alice through a looking glass was supposed to be analogous to the White Rabbit. That clearly was too subtle). The Tweedledee and Dum characters were suitably creepy. I even randomly am actually rather fond of Duchess for some reason - maybe just because she's such a fantastic golden-blonde skank, and I love her character design. I kinda want to write hot hateslash with her and Alice, just because.
And I will say one thing for 'Alice'...it's suitably weird, and makes no apologies for it. And offers very little explanation. Going through a door, which turns out to be the inside of a bus, which is actually an elevator? Why not! A gangster-esque cyborg assasin with a ceramic rabbit for a head? Sure! And it actually manages to pull most of this off as enjoyably trippy, rather than heading straight down the path to nonsensical annoyance land.
...I said, most. Actually, it's not so much the idea behiind most of the aspects of the world as the envisioning of it. Because there were a lot of chances they had to go over the top and fabulous, and they didn't...or took another direction...which sadly fell on its face. I get that this is supposed to be a "darker, edgier" Wonderland...but I still need it to be more fanatastic. More wonderful. And it's not. There's a lot of minimalism in the settings which comes off as just plain boring. I liked the Queen's meeting room, and the White Rabbit headquarters, but both the tea shop and the casino which, IMHO, should have been some of the more crazy and overwhelming settings, were a sad disappointment.
And let's not even go into the...effects. I don't know if 'Tin Man' had a better budget, or the people involved just tried harder or what, but...I'm sorry. I'm not saying everything in 'Tin Man' looke believable or mind-blowing or anything, because it didn't. But the way it was executed in that series, you were able to sort of lose your mind in it, and willingly suspend disbelief for that moment in time. The whole thing was a sort of "stylistic suck", I guess. But too much of 'Alice' looks noticably, distractingly "pasted on yay". 'Tin Man' looked like it could have been a miniseries on just about any channel; 'Alice' very clearly has the special effects of something played on SyFy. And am I losing my mind, or did they straight-up reuse the opera house on Kobol from BSG for the refuge's library?? I'm not even kidding, that is so just what it looked like.
All in all, I'm afraid I'm going to have to write 'Alice' off as something of a disappoinment. It's by no means the worst thing I've ever seen, especially not on the SyFy channel, but it's hardly the mind-blowing production they clearly wanted it to be. It was able to hold my attention enough for two hours, and I am going to tune back in tonight because there are enough plot threads that I'm vaguely curious to see how they end, so I suppose it's enough of a sucess on that front. But it's not a tell-all-your-friends-and-family show, and it's not really enough to write home about. Like the original Cheshire Cat, this tale is slowly fading away mid-action.