“Alice” should be big box office

Industry insiders say Disney has again performed brilliantly in marketing a movie – this time director Tim Burton’s visual feast “Alice in Wonderland” starring Johnny Depp.

But while the film is expected to open way above $60 million in North America this weekend, the critics haven’t been too kind.

The Rotten Tomatoes website notes that a middling 58% of the reviews it sampled have been approving of “Alice in Wonderland.” The website’s consensus: “Tim Burton’s ‘Alice’ sacrifices the book’s minimal narrative coherence, and much of its heart, but it’s an undeniable visual treat.”

The Daily Telegraph in London called the film “a letdown.” Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small, and the pills Tim Burton gives you don’t do very much at all.” The New York Observer went as far as suggest that it might be time for Depp and Burton “to start thinking about seeing other people.” Roger Ebert said it plays out “better as an adult hallucination, which is how Burton rather brilliantly interprets it until a pointless third at flies off the rails.”

Burton’s biggest opening to date was 2001’s “Planet of the Apes” with $68.5 million while his 2005 film “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” starring Depp, opened to $56.2 million. Moviegoers have also grown to love Depp’s off-kilter characterizations like Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean” and its sequels.