This is a science fiction re-imagining of the classic Alice in Wonderland that aired as a mini-series on the Syfy channel, produced byt he same company that made TIN MAN, a sci-fi reimagining of Wizard of Oz.
The story: Alice (Caterina Scorsone), a 20-something Judo sensai, has met the man of her dreams, Jack. Her mother isn't convinced -- she always finds a reason to turn men away -- but Alice thinks he is perfect...until he gives her a very expensive ring. She freaks. It's too soon, etc. The man though slips it into her pocket. While she tries to find him to give it back, she sees that he has been kidnapped. She follows them and finds herself in a strange reinvention of Wonderland, governed by the Red Queen (played by Kathy Bates). Alice becomes part of the resistance set to overthrow the queen to save Jack, who it turns out is the queen's son.
I won't go through the whole story. Part of the fun is seeing these twisted sci-fi reinventions. While Tim Burton's ALICE IN WONDERLAND (reviewed after this one, even though I typed it in first because of the way these blogs work) never seemed to have that sense in whimsy, this one does at times. Not all the time, but enough that I found it interesting. Of course, this has a budget about 1/100th the budget of the Tim Burton version, so the visuals, while good at times aren't even close to the same level. Still, for a more engaging story and a better sense of whimsy, I would actually recommend this version a little over the Tim Burton version.
*** SLIGHT RECOMMEND ***
A few writer notes ---
It's interesting that both the Syfy mini-series and the Tim Burton version of the Alice in Wonderland they try to make a story out of Alice. There is the pre-story that happens before she comes to Wonderland (or Underland), then the adventures that happen in Wonderland, both of which involve overthrowing the Red Queen who has taken over Wonderland, and then the post story. The thing is that neither is particularly effective. The Syfy version, because it is a simple story of a woman who likes a guy, does it better since it becomes the romance b-story. The Tim Burton version, with the question of will she accept the marriage proposal, doesn't really have anything to do with her adventures and feel pretty useless. The bigger problem both of these have is that the question has nothing to do with Wonderland itself, so they both feel fairly weak. Compare that with the classic Disney version of Peter Pan -- where the pre-story is about Wendy's father wants her to grow up but she doesn't want to, then she goes to Neverland where we get Tinkerbell dying and that we all need to believe in fairies. Then Wendy and the boys come back and her father has relented and in fact sees a final vision that reminds him of his childhood. It's a powerful story about being willing to believe and how it can be a good thing to hold onto that imagination and creativity even as adult pressures might try to force you to push them away. Nothing like that is in either of these versions of Alice in Wonderland. Strange, isn't it? You set these stories in one of the most imaginative, creative, whimsical fantasy worlds ever and yet the stories themselves are totally bland? (The Syfy channel does have the plot of the Red Queen stealing emotions from humans to keep people sedated, which actually seems to say the opposite of what you would expect -- that the fantasy should be rejected because it is the real world where people have real emotions. It's an interesting concept, but never completely fits with the story.) Both versions did well (the Syfy channel version was a big hit for the channel and the Tim Burton has grossed over $250M domestic US). Still, it's hard to believe either will be embraced the way the original was. Maybe if they had come up with a story that really spoke to that power of imagination they would have come up with a story that could have really rivalled the original.
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