![]() I realize that I am almost done here but I have not even mentioned the worst thing about the film. A great shame, as the source material is undeniably compelling. It's all surface-veneer, and really that's this movie's ultimate problem, there is nothing of interest within the CGI/3D. A bad film is a bad film, and no amount of extra visual depth is going to change that one iota. ![]() I sensed it was a gimmick even before I watched Avatar now I am certain. So you are left wondering what exactly was the point? I saw this in 3D and if there is one thing that this film has taught me it's that I am done with this 'new and improved' technology. ![]() It also doesn't help that the journey to Wonderland has made absolutely no difference at all to the title character's state of mind – at the beginning she does not want to get married to the upper-class chump and at the end she does not want to get married to the upper-class chump. We don't know or have any interest in these characters, so when Alice goes around her extended family one by one imparting her new knowledge onto them, it means nothing. It also meant that the conclusion came across as deeply trite, as we have been given nothing to empathize with. I found it very difficult to care for any of the characters in this film, and that is never a good thing. Depp's Mad Hatter is pretty uninspired by his standards, while Burton's visuals and Elfman's music are nice but ultimately completely forgettable. Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Danny Elfman – they say familiarity breeds contempt, well that's a bit strong but it IS seriously lacking in surprises and you cannot help think that all three individually talented men could do with taking a break from each other for the good of their careers. ![]() There is also a dangerously cosy predictability at play here too. We want weirdness from an Alice in Wonderland film, not slick CGI and famous voice-over actors. It consistently takes us out of the movie and grounds the characters in a way that is just counter-productive. The otherworldly weirdness is dissipated too by the use of overly-familiar voices to give life to the various denizens of this world, we are left thinking 'Oh that's Stephen Fry, hey isn't that Alan Rickman, I'm sure that's Christopher Lee and isn't that the bloke from Little Britain, etc'. There is a distinct lack of wonder in this Wonderland. Sure it's very efficient and well-designed but like CGI in general, it's far too polished to really strike a chord and convince. But the trouble is that the true weirdness that is at the heart of this story is not captured at all with all the computer-generated imagery on-screen. It's a movie where CGI effects rule the day. But all too often, despite an agreeable tendency towards visual flamboyance, I leave his films feeling somewhat underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, the man has made some excellent films, such as the masterful Ed Wood. Imposition Studio was a fine solution with an arcane protection system that rendered useless for us.Sometimes I think that I should like Tim Burton movies more than I do. I do so reluctantly as the version we paid for actually met our needs. I am visiting this board today looking for a replacement imposition software. Has anyone had similar experiences with this application? We have a standard HP Z class workstation with Win 7 - nothing unusual. We received several activation keys in the last month to reinstall the application but none worked. It uses an annoying copy protection scheme that senses hardware changes and requires an activation key every time there is a change. We recently had our imposition workstation crash and after getting a new one we were unable to re-install the application. I am hoping that is a temporary situation. The price was reasonable but I see their site Bizland is now down (). The software was powerful for a variety of book projects (cut and stack, sewn sections, perfect bound, etc). I have been using Imposition Studio until 2 months ago.
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