Syfy’s original 2-night movie event, ALICE, the reimaginning of Lewis Carroll’s books “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass,” is a must-watch in my book, even more if you enjoyed Syfy’s Tin Man.
I got a chance to watch the whole Alice movie and really loved it. Writer/director Nick Willing did an incredible job of reimagining the story we all know and love. He found a way to take every character from the story and put them into this modern world. For example, Oysters are what kidnapped humans are called in Wonderland and flamingos are some sort of flying machines for 1-2 people, and that’s only a sample. It was so much fun finding out throughout the movie how everything was reinvented.
Alice follows a modern-day Alice (Caterina Scorsone) who finds herself in Wonderland when chasing after her new love, Jack Chase (Philip Winchester), whom she sees get abducted by two men in suits. Now in Wonderland, Alice goes through a pretty incredible journey in pursuit of Jack Chase, during which she meets quite a few interesting characters, one of which is Hatter, her new friend throughout the journey.
The new Alice is different from the one in the books, she is definitely not as innocent, has a mind of her own, and can kick some butt. It was definitely enjoyable to see her go through this new journey.
My favorite character however is Hatter, played by Andrew-Lee Potts, whom I have been a fan of since Primeval (a great show you should check out if you haven’t yet). Hatter helps Alice throughout her journey, and as you can guess he is the Mad Hatter from the books, although he is not that Mad, but does love his hat.
These two have a great dynamic and I think it’s one of the reasons the movie worked for me.
The White Knight is also a pretty fun character and fans of Eureka will recognize Matt Frewer (who plays Jim Taggart in the show), who is pretty hilarious.
The Queen of Hearts is portrayed by Kathy Bates and is actually pretty close to the devilish character from the books and you’ll definitely be hearing the phrase “off with his head” more than once.
I do have to mention though, that in the screener that I watched, the visual effects were not all done, so you had some scenes that cut back and forth between green screen and and other unfinished scenes, which made it hard to really appreciate the true vision of the director, and really get into the magic of Wonderland. It sometimes felt like I was watching a behind-the-scenes of Alice, which I guess was kind of fun, but sort of took you out of the movie a bit. That said, I enjoyed the unfinished version of Alice so much, that it only made me want to watch the finished version all over again, I already have it scheduled on my DVR, so that’s saying something.
Overall, I think that if you like the “Alice in Wonderland” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass” stories, enjoy fantasy movies, and are open to a modern take on the stories, you’re definitely going to love Syfy’s Alice. I personally loved it even more than Syfy’s Tin Man (which I also really enjoyed), and can’t wait to watch it all over again. I think Syfy might have another win on their hands.
So don’t forget to watch Syfy’s Alice Part 1 on Sunday, December 6 at 9pm and Part 2 Monday December 7 at 9pm.
You can also check out some photos and preview of Alice in the meantime.
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