Alice in Underland

I went to see Alice the other day - big tent pole movie in 3D - the saviour of cinema if you listen to some pundits.  Amazing art direction, a typical Burton staple, great photography, good actors in garishly beautiful costumes, a classical story, a director at the top of his craft, decent musical score...  Yet I was bored out of my skull...

I felt no wonder, no excitement at discovering this new world.  I did not hate the film but I was not engaged by it in any way.  I guess it left me indifferent...

Strangely, I felt similar after watching Avatar, probably the most spectacular film I have ever seen visually -  yet I felt somehow disengaged and frankly bored after a while.  And I wonder why.  The story of Avatar was not original by a iota but it is a familiar story that has been told many times before and usually worked.  So why does it not work so well here.  Why does it not keep my interest as an audience despite everything else around it being innovative and top notch?

Is it me as an audience member or is it that films now feel so perfectly manufactured? Note: although nowadays, special effects at that budget level are usually seamless, some work needs to be done with compositing in some shots, both in Alice and to a lesser extent in Avatar - there are no excuses for shoddy composites at such a budget level.  Nothing takes me out of a movie faster than noticing a bad integration.

Perhaps this is the problem - we now know so much about how movies are made, we no longer watch them for the story but also for the technique and it eventually takes you out.  But then again, I watch good movies from other decades, like the 60s, 70s or 80s  and 90s and I am still transported and entertained despite bad (by today standards) effects and lesser cinematic potential.  Alice made me think that there is not one movie in the last decade that has left a major impact on me the way films from other decades did.  Am I just getting older or the films are getting worst?