Honestly, where to start with this beautiful travesty? Despite boasting a stellar talent and cast with the likes of Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, and Morgan Freeman, this cinematic endeavor turns out to be an unholy and misguided collaboration, and points to everything wrong about this terrible and miscalculated adaptation.
First, the tone and the quality is clearly a rip-off to the other fantasy films that preceded it, such as the 2010 version of Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Wizard of Oz. The script is totally cliched, muddled, confusing, and convoluted, given the fact that the screenwriter of this film who is just a first-time inexperienced screenwriter, has no idea on how to blend well fantasy with other genres such as drama and adventure. Also, this film has major inconsistencies within the plot and are incoherent. Even the additional writing of Tom McCarthy is giving no redeemable favors. Even the dialogue is bland, boring, and flat. Much of the character development is also non-existent, and the characters itself are half-baked and dreadfully written. Another issue that this film have is the cheesy and campy tone that almost draws negative similarities with bad movies that have these similar qualities such as Batman & Robin, and 2003 adaptation of The Cat in the Hat.
Second, the acting is totally flat and atrocious. Despite Mackenzie Foy's very considerable effort in bringing depth to her performance, it simply resembled as uninspiring, flat, boring, and mediocre. Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren have given a flat and terribly phoned-it-in performances, which is a major disappointment considering the two acting legends are one of the most exceptional and versatile acting talents in the acting business, and their performances are simply nothing but paycheck roles. Even Keira Knightley's performance is far from being terribly wasted, it's simply the worst. From the terribly yet laughable and cartoonish voice, monotone, and mannerisms that draws unfavorable comparisons to Helena Bonham Carter's whimsical style, this type of acting style does not work on Kiera Knightley's filmography and she's better off on handling roles of usual dramatic leading ladies of literature. Even the performances of Matthew Macfadyen, Misty Copeland, Eugenio Derbez and Richard E. Grant are simply useless and wasted.
Third, despite its stellar yet remarkable costumes, the production design, and the musical score; these aren't enough to redeem this fantasy misfire. It's just style over substance. Even the green screen within the film is terribly noticeable and the CGI is distracting. Worse, the film is hollow, bloated, flat, and soulless. It lacks the magic, charm, heart, and soul that the other superior Disney live-action fantasy films such as Into the Woods, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book, Pete's Dragon and Christopher Robin, possesses. Even Alice in Wonderland and Maleficent which had a weak story, still had the same characteristics and are at least guilty-pleasure and redeemable. This film on the other hand is irredeemable from start to finish. It gets points for diversity but just like the ill-fated A Wrinkle in Time, much of its great ambition just falls flat and is arguably can be spelled as a disaster.
This is no doubt considered as one of Disney's worst fantasy film in many decades, and also a runner-up of the worst Nutcracker adaptation behind the abominable The Nutcracker the Untold story or The Nutcracker in 3D. Also, it's also considered one of this year's worst and disappointing films.
First, the tone and the quality is clearly a rip-off to the other fantasy films that preceded it, such as the 2010 version of Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Wizard of Oz. The script is totally cliched, muddled, confusing, and convoluted, given the fact that the screenwriter of this film who is just a first-time inexperienced screenwriter, has no idea on how to blend well fantasy with other genres such as drama and adventure. Also, this film has major inconsistencies within the plot and are incoherent. Even the additional writing of Tom McCarthy is giving no redeemable favors. Even the dialogue is bland, boring, and flat. Much of the character development is also non-existent, and the characters itself are half-baked and dreadfully written. Another issue that this film have is the cheesy and campy tone that almost draws negative similarities with bad movies that have these similar qualities such as Batman & Robin, and 2003 adaptation of The Cat in the Hat.
Second, the acting is totally flat and atrocious. Despite Mackenzie Foy's very considerable effort in bringing depth to her performance, it simply resembled as uninspiring, flat, boring, and mediocre. Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren have given a flat and terribly phoned-it-in performances, which is a major disappointment considering the two acting legends are one of the most exceptional and versatile acting talents in the acting business, and their performances are simply nothing but paycheck roles. Even Keira Knightley's performance is far from being terribly wasted, it's simply the worst. From the terribly yet laughable and cartoonish voice, monotone, and mannerisms that draws unfavorable comparisons to Helena Bonham Carter's whimsical style, this type of acting style does not work on Kiera Knightley's filmography and she's better off on handling roles of usual dramatic leading ladies of literature. Even the performances of Matthew Macfadyen, Misty Copeland, Eugenio Derbez and Richard E. Grant are simply useless and wasted.
Third, despite its stellar yet remarkable costumes, the production design, and the musical score; these aren't enough to redeem this fantasy misfire. It's just style over substance. Even the green screen within the film is terribly noticeable and the CGI is distracting. Worse, the film is hollow, bloated, flat, and soulless. It lacks the magic, charm, heart, and soul that the other superior Disney live-action fantasy films such as Into the Woods, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book, Pete's Dragon and Christopher Robin, possesses. Even Alice in Wonderland and Maleficent which had a weak story, still had the same characteristics and are at least guilty-pleasure and redeemable. This film on the other hand is irredeemable from start to finish. It gets points for diversity but just like the ill-fated A Wrinkle in Time, much of its great ambition just falls flat and is arguably can be spelled as a disaster.
This is no doubt considered as one of Disney's worst fantasy film in many decades, and also a runner-up of the worst Nutcracker adaptation behind the abominable The Nutcracker the Untold story or The Nutcracker in 3D. Also, it's also considered one of this year's worst and disappointing films.