I'm still a huge fan of Burton's early work. From 1985, when he made Pee-Wee's Big Adventure to 1994 when he made Ed Wood, Burton managed to carve out his own identity within the Hollywood system and made a series of unique blockbusters that resonated with audiences and critics. The problem is by that point he had basically exhausted his creative capacity. His films always told similar stories, with similar visual styles, but he managed to find a way to make them unique.
Since that time, particularly since the failure of Mars Attacks!, he's retreated into a pale imitation of his old works. With Alice, all the ingredients of classic Burton are there, but there's no emotional core to the world. There's no sense of real people or emotions to engage with. This film in particular represents a nadir for him, and I'm not sure he'll ever return to even making good films, let alone ones that match up with the best of his '80s and '90s work.
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