Alice in Wonderland

I was, as I'm sure many were, delighted to hear that Tim Burton was releasing Alice in Wonderland, a sort of sequel where Alice relives parts of her previous adventure and faces new obstacles.
We were excited because "Wonderland" seems a perfect setting to place Burton's fantastic artwork and dark themes - Similar to Beetlejuice and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, anything could happen in this boundless world, which is exactly what Burton needs to make a good film.
And what we expected of Burton came across - We were hit with his dark tones and slightly awkward yet loveable characters (i.e. Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter), aspects which make him the outlandish and recognisable auteur he is.
However, there was something missing from his recent work. Perhaps because we knew what to expect, he's tried to focus on his strange and wonderful world, rather than a storyline we'd all prefer. Even with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, based on the Roald Dahl classic, we didn't always know what was going to happen next, due to Burton's scripting, which we've seen in Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice. Unfortunately, Alice in Wonderland had a predictable, almost dull plot, of which we could expect from a typical children's film, perhaps directed by Robert Rodriguez or Chris Columbus.
We especially saw this in the opening and end scenes, which was a horrible, odd mix of work by directors such as Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice, Atonement) and David Yates (Harry Potter films 5-7). It might have been because it was produced by Disney, but I figured they had some sense of what a good film was like after their work with Pixar and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Though, notably, not the sequels). Despite this, it did feature the awkwardness of Burton's characters through Alice and the short chase scene with Alice and the White Rabbit was utterly fantastic.
Of course, I know it's Alice in Wonderland, it's supposed to be a kids film. But it was supposed to be a Tim Burton kids film, not something as mediocre as The Vampire's Assistant. I didn't expect it to be darker than it was and the art direction was simply immaculate. But with a storyline that's an insult to Burton's previous work and depressingly mainstream camera work in the opening and end scenes and the final battle and post-battle scenes, it's only just about possible to give Alice in Wonderland three stars.
We can enjoy all the actors' performances (in particular, Depp and Carter, as well as the cameo voice acting) and we can appreciate the stunning 3D, 3D which Avatar seriously lacked (especially when Alice falls down the rabbit hole). Unfortunately, the film didn't reach Burton's full potential nor, sadly, fill our need of reliving the classic tale of Alice in Wonderland.