"Alice in Wonderland" wrap up
Alright. So I went with my mom to a late showing of it Friday night - at the Warren, of course - and I liked it. It was pretty good. Here's a picture of the *three* of us before I get down to business. :p
Is it sad that he has probably the best smile out of the three of us? :p And he has THE whitest teeth!
My Cheshire Cat statue was a hit. My tat too. I caught people looking at it and pointing. There were these two older guys in the row in front of us way on the other side who kept looking at it, and one finally whipped out a camera and took a couple of pictures. He should've come over and got a closer picture; I don't bite! :) There was a group of I'd say 16 year olds right next to us who kept looking over at it, then 3 teenage boys sat on the other side of us looking at it and my tat; one took a picture. A younger girl, maybe 8, and her mom sat behind us and she said, "Wow! That's so cool!" I held it up for her to see it better, then my mom was like "Oh just wait. She got a tattoo of it too," so I showed them that. They loved it. :D I crossed my legs and kept him on my knee so he'd be up higher where people could see him; he's a heavy sucker though, so I had to keep switching legs. At one point, I saw his teeth light up orange a couple of times, so someone was taking a picture from behind. One girl came up and was taking a picture from behind, so when I saw her I was like, "Let me hold him up for you!" Seriously! I don't bite! You can come ask me! haha Mom said I should go up to the stage in front of the screen and welcome people to the movie like I did for CATCF; maybe if I had my dress. Even then, probably not! For Willy Wonka, I at least got $70 for doing it to pay off my concert debt. Speaking of the dress, it should be coming soon. I'm going for the American McGee's Alice look, so I'll be blood staining the apron when it gets here. I've decided I'll dress up each time I go see it; it'd be fun and crazy.
SPOILERS AHEAD maybe
Okay. Onto the actual movie. Right away, you can tell it's Danny Elfman who composed. The recurring triplets sure sounded a lot like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" Main Titles. There wasn't any specific theme I could hear, but maybe I just didn't catch it for the first time. Music was great; Elfman never fails.
LOVED Mia as Alice. I think she was a great choice. She had the look, the attitude, everything. I enjoyed watching her. Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway also get honorable mentions. They were fantastic as the two queens. These three made the movie for me. I think Helena stole every scene she was in; she was absolutely the Red Queen. The Cheshire Cat reminded me of my cat, Snickers. He was fat, furry, cheeky, and adorable. The two tweedles were funny as hell. Alan Rickman as the caterpillar was a perfect choice. That caterpillar was faaaat! Sure loved sucking on that hookah, which made me want to set up mine and smoke it. (If you haven't tried a hookah, you must! Makes you feel good, like tipsy.) The March Hare was definitely on crack. He was so tweaked out and hilarious as hell. The Jabberwocky reminded me of the dragons (I forget if they have a specific name...) from "The Lord of the Rings," like the one the Witch King rides. I think the only character that didn't do much for me was, sadly, the Mad Hatter. Johnny was great, but I didn't care much for the character. The Hatter was like Wonka, Jack Sparrow, and Sweeney Todd all rolled into one. And he would have these "Sweeney Todd" moments were he'd get all dark/serious/angry, but it never explained why. Is he bipolar or possessed by a demon? Because then he acts like he doesn't know what the hell just happened. He was in it too much, and I did not like what they did with Alice's relationship with him, making them all buddy-buddy. The two hardly spent time together her first trip to Wonderland, so how are they so close? Especially since she didn't remember going to Wonderland the first time - how did she remember him?
Detour: that's one thing I wish they would've mentioned earlier in the film. I spent some time wondering if she had even been to Wonderland at all, if it was her first time, if she didn't remember....it finally comes out she doesn't remember.
Back to the Hatter. I think they put too much focus and emphasis on him. I can see how people would pair him and Alice together, which makes it worse because it shouldn't be that way. If anything, the Cheshire Cat should've been more of her companion, not the Hatter. The shots of him getting encircled by guards, sitting chained in a dark cell, and his dejected walk to meet the Red Queen is right up my alley as far as dark fanfiction is concerned. haha ;) Could definitely add some torture, but I doubt if I'll get into the fandom, considering I didn't feel much for him or see any pairings and shit like that.
I thought it kind of odd that the White Queen had chess pieces as soldiers and the Red Queen had cards. I would've preferred to see it one or the other.
Absolutely loved the costumes. Especially all of Alice's dresses. And was her hair always perfect or what?! Damn! Beautiful blonde locks. Mia has since chopped it all off for a pixie cut, and she still looks good. Liked the dark lipstick in contrast to the White Queen's pasty skin and white dress. Gave her a little bit of a "pop," as did the black nail polish; kind of gave her a little bit of a punk/goth look.
I expected the scenery to be "darker" and gloomy since the Red Queen had taken over like a tyrant and destroyed that one area of land where the White Queen was having that celebration in the flashback. Plus, it's Tim Burton; I thought it'd look a little more dreary to fit the mood. But he did get his trademark black and white stripes in there through the costumes. :)
I liked the continuing theme of growing up and finding your own path/making your own decisions. So glad she stood up for herself in the end and didn't marry that total loser! Yikes.
For the end battle, I'm glad she took several hard hits from the Jabberwock. She's not god, she's not unbeatable, or indestructible - she's a teenage girl who doesn't have experience with fighting. Loved her "Off with your head!" line before she decapitates him. Maybe predictable, but bad ass to me.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I'll be going to see it again....and again....how many times? I don't know. Maybe about the same amount as I did for "Public Enemies." I want to try and see it again in the balcony theatre before it gets kicked out, which will probably be this coming Friday with whatever's coming out if there are any huge movies. May go on Thursday after French; it shouldn't be too busy between 2 and 3. Haven't decided if I'll take my statue every time. :)
So there you have it. If you read all of that, you're awesome. If you skimmed it, you're awesome too. If you ignored it, you suck. bwhahaha
Though it cost me quite a bit, I finally bought American McGee's Alice off of ebay. I was really worried it wouldn't work because I have Vista, and I've read about people having serious trouble getting it to work, but I popped it in, loaded it, and it works perfectly. And it's fucking addictive. I LOOOOVE it. I finally finished it the other day and started a new game on the next level, medium. I've been playing it when I should be doing homework! Bad, I know, but it's so addicting and fun! And frustrating at times. Like the fucking Mad Hatter. Took me forever to kill that bastard. I like how when you defeat a boss, their heads tend to blow up. So playing this game is what I've been doing lately with all my spare time. I need to ween myself off of it. :)
Got class at 8:30am so....6 hours from now? Busy ass day, and I still have a Japanese report thingy I have to do before class at 2:30. I think it only has to be a paragraph on something related to Japan, so I'm thinking doujinshi. I wanted to do it on Japanese game shows, but I couldn't find any information on them except for thigns like "top 5 Japanese game shows" and crap like that. I'll be doing it on my down time between classes. Have a break from 9:30 to 12:30. I can get it done, right? I better because I've known about this for 2 months! Damn procrastination.
Is it sad that he has probably the best smile out of the three of us? :p And he has THE whitest teeth!
My Cheshire Cat statue was a hit. My tat too. I caught people looking at it and pointing. There were these two older guys in the row in front of us way on the other side who kept looking at it, and one finally whipped out a camera and took a couple of pictures. He should've come over and got a closer picture; I don't bite! :) There was a group of I'd say 16 year olds right next to us who kept looking over at it, then 3 teenage boys sat on the other side of us looking at it and my tat; one took a picture. A younger girl, maybe 8, and her mom sat behind us and she said, "Wow! That's so cool!" I held it up for her to see it better, then my mom was like "Oh just wait. She got a tattoo of it too," so I showed them that. They loved it. :D I crossed my legs and kept him on my knee so he'd be up higher where people could see him; he's a heavy sucker though, so I had to keep switching legs. At one point, I saw his teeth light up orange a couple of times, so someone was taking a picture from behind. One girl came up and was taking a picture from behind, so when I saw her I was like, "Let me hold him up for you!" Seriously! I don't bite! You can come ask me! haha Mom said I should go up to the stage in front of the screen and welcome people to the movie like I did for CATCF; maybe if I had my dress. Even then, probably not! For Willy Wonka, I at least got $70 for doing it to pay off my concert debt. Speaking of the dress, it should be coming soon. I'm going for the American McGee's Alice look, so I'll be blood staining the apron when it gets here. I've decided I'll dress up each time I go see it; it'd be fun and crazy.
SPOILERS AHEAD maybe
Okay. Onto the actual movie. Right away, you can tell it's Danny Elfman who composed. The recurring triplets sure sounded a lot like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" Main Titles. There wasn't any specific theme I could hear, but maybe I just didn't catch it for the first time. Music was great; Elfman never fails.
LOVED Mia as Alice. I think she was a great choice. She had the look, the attitude, everything. I enjoyed watching her. Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway also get honorable mentions. They were fantastic as the two queens. These three made the movie for me. I think Helena stole every scene she was in; she was absolutely the Red Queen. The Cheshire Cat reminded me of my cat, Snickers. He was fat, furry, cheeky, and adorable. The two tweedles were funny as hell. Alan Rickman as the caterpillar was a perfect choice. That caterpillar was faaaat! Sure loved sucking on that hookah, which made me want to set up mine and smoke it. (If you haven't tried a hookah, you must! Makes you feel good, like tipsy.) The March Hare was definitely on crack. He was so tweaked out and hilarious as hell. The Jabberwocky reminded me of the dragons (I forget if they have a specific name...) from "The Lord of the Rings," like the one the Witch King rides. I think the only character that didn't do much for me was, sadly, the Mad Hatter. Johnny was great, but I didn't care much for the character. The Hatter was like Wonka, Jack Sparrow, and Sweeney Todd all rolled into one. And he would have these "Sweeney Todd" moments were he'd get all dark/serious/angry, but it never explained why. Is he bipolar or possessed by a demon? Because then he acts like he doesn't know what the hell just happened. He was in it too much, and I did not like what they did with Alice's relationship with him, making them all buddy-buddy. The two hardly spent time together her first trip to Wonderland, so how are they so close? Especially since she didn't remember going to Wonderland the first time - how did she remember him?
Detour: that's one thing I wish they would've mentioned earlier in the film. I spent some time wondering if she had even been to Wonderland at all, if it was her first time, if she didn't remember....it finally comes out she doesn't remember.
Back to the Hatter. I think they put too much focus and emphasis on him. I can see how people would pair him and Alice together, which makes it worse because it shouldn't be that way. If anything, the Cheshire Cat should've been more of her companion, not the Hatter. The shots of him getting encircled by guards, sitting chained in a dark cell, and his dejected walk to meet the Red Queen is right up my alley as far as dark fanfiction is concerned. haha ;) Could definitely add some torture, but I doubt if I'll get into the fandom, considering I didn't feel much for him or see any pairings and shit like that.
I thought it kind of odd that the White Queen had chess pieces as soldiers and the Red Queen had cards. I would've preferred to see it one or the other.
Absolutely loved the costumes. Especially all of Alice's dresses. And was her hair always perfect or what?! Damn! Beautiful blonde locks. Mia has since chopped it all off for a pixie cut, and she still looks good. Liked the dark lipstick in contrast to the White Queen's pasty skin and white dress. Gave her a little bit of a "pop," as did the black nail polish; kind of gave her a little bit of a punk/goth look.
I expected the scenery to be "darker" and gloomy since the Red Queen had taken over like a tyrant and destroyed that one area of land where the White Queen was having that celebration in the flashback. Plus, it's Tim Burton; I thought it'd look a little more dreary to fit the mood. But he did get his trademark black and white stripes in there through the costumes. :)
I liked the continuing theme of growing up and finding your own path/making your own decisions. So glad she stood up for herself in the end and didn't marry that total loser! Yikes.
For the end battle, I'm glad she took several hard hits from the Jabberwock. She's not god, she's not unbeatable, or indestructible - she's a teenage girl who doesn't have experience with fighting. Loved her "Off with your head!" line before she decapitates him. Maybe predictable, but bad ass to me.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I'll be going to see it again....and again....how many times? I don't know. Maybe about the same amount as I did for "Public Enemies." I want to try and see it again in the balcony theatre before it gets kicked out, which will probably be this coming Friday with whatever's coming out if there are any huge movies. May go on Thursday after French; it shouldn't be too busy between 2 and 3. Haven't decided if I'll take my statue every time. :)
So there you have it. If you read all of that, you're awesome. If you skimmed it, you're awesome too. If you ignored it, you suck. bwhahaha
Though it cost me quite a bit, I finally bought American McGee's Alice off of ebay. I was really worried it wouldn't work because I have Vista, and I've read about people having serious trouble getting it to work, but I popped it in, loaded it, and it works perfectly. And it's fucking addictive. I LOOOOVE it. I finally finished it the other day and started a new game on the next level, medium. I've been playing it when I should be doing homework! Bad, I know, but it's so addicting and fun! And frustrating at times. Like the fucking Mad Hatter. Took me forever to kill that bastard. I like how when you defeat a boss, their heads tend to blow up. So playing this game is what I've been doing lately with all my spare time. I need to ween myself off of it. :)
Got class at 8:30am so....6 hours from now? Busy ass day, and I still have a Japanese report thingy I have to do before class at 2:30. I think it only has to be a paragraph on something related to Japan, so I'm thinking doujinshi. I wanted to do it on Japanese game shows, but I couldn't find any information on them except for thigns like "top 5 Japanese game shows" and crap like that. I'll be doing it on my down time between classes. Have a break from 9:30 to 12:30. I can get it done, right? I better because I've known about this for 2 months! Damn procrastination.