At the intersection of expectation and reality you can sometimes end up at disappointment street. You can look forward to something so much that it will never live up to the idea you had in your brain. A shame, really.
I know you don't want to count your chickens before they hatch, or your Cheshire cats or whatever, but the trailer for the new Tim Burton film "Alice in Wonderland" left me a bit underwhelmed. Before you scream "off with my head" or any other "Alice" colloquialism, understand this: I just don't want to be let down again.
At first glance, the trailer looks enticing enough. The mood set by the dark walk through the forest is engaging, but the furniture looks fairly fake in the fall through the rabbit hole.
Also, there are some hair issues. I'm no physics major, but I'm pretty sure hair will fly upward as you fall down. If this were any other director, it wouldn't be a problem. But this is Tim Burton, the master of the macabre, the gleeful ghost of Gothic ghoulishness. The guy brought us "The Nightmare Before Christmas," a classic. I expect more.
The checkered floor, the clear liquid in the glass vial, it all seems so ordinary, and so… expected. It's as if I could close my eyes and imagine the whole movie. I don't want to do that. I want to be shocked and breathless, something that only a good trailer can do. I want to salivate and be unable to contain my fervent desire.
In Burton's defense, he admits that the film is not quite yet ready. In an interview with film site rottentomatoes.com, he said, "I'll be working up until the end. It's a weird process, because we're using so many different techniques, it takes a very long time to get to a finished shot, so I have very few finished shots, if any. And it comes out in March. So there's a lot of work to do, but a lot of it will come together at the end. It's a bit scary, but it's exciting as well."
This brings up the question as to why the trailer is out in the first place. Two years ago, the trailer for "Iron Man" debuted at Comic-Con 2007 and created an Internet sensation. I would have put off surgery to see that movie. Was this a similar ploy? If it was, or is, it's misguided to say the least.
Also, I am forced to deal with the sad, sobering truth that a Johnny Depp movie does not mean a good movie. Evidence: "Public Enemies." This movie had everything going for it. Two of the world's biggest movie stars, a real-life American outlaw story and the director of "Heat," "Ali" and "The Aviator."
However, it stank worse than a nursing home with a shortage of adult diapers. I was contemplating if the theater stairs were enough to tumble me to my death.
Bottom line: the trailer is lame, but I won't give up hope. I honestly thought that "Pirates of the Caribbean" looked about as exciting as a math club get together. But I was pleasantly surprised, blown away really, at the sheer amount of awesome that was packed into that movie.
So yes, I guess I do have a very important date to keep. I just don't want to be disappointed.
