Last night, I took my daughter to see Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, presented in 3D at the Regal Cinemas Warrington Crossing multiplex.

Things got off to a bad start when the pre-movie trailers shut down and the digital projector failed to run. The theater manager came out and did a song-and-dance, stalling for time while the projectionist tried to get things running again.The digital projector was a Sony 4K SXRD (LCoS) model, by the way.

About 20 minutes later, the system came to life and we settled back to watch a movie that has grossed an amazing $116M over its opening weekend, despite tepid reviews by several media outlets.

It’s important to note that Alice wasn’t shot in 3D. All of the 3D effects were added later, in post production. And for the opening live action sequences, it was hard to see much in the way of 3D effects using the RealD circular polarized glasses.

Photo Copyright © 2010 Walt Disney Pictures

Things improved somewhat after Alice entered Wonderland and the movie shifted to a mix of live and CG effects and backgrounds. However, the projected image didn’t have as much contrast and snap to it, compared to the showing of Avatar I saw back in December that used a Christie DLP Cinema projector. Black levels were higher than I’d expected, but that’s not surprising – none of the Sony 4K demos I’ve ever seen had really good blacks and low grays.

Tim Burton went berserko with vibrant colors for the Wonderland sequences and those were spectacular to watch.  And the 3D effects got better as the movie wound on. In fact, the most dramatic 3D effect was the closing title sequence, with characters and key credits presented inside a rectangular trellis that I swore was just a few feet in front of me – I even reached out to try and touch it.

The verdict? Alice in Wonderland is indeed entertaining, although a bit slow at times. Many of the 3D effects aren’t all that intense or even perceived. The live action sequences at the start and end of the film are largely flat, and Disney and Burton could have taken a Wizard of Oz approach by leaving those sequences in 2D, requiring the glasses only for the Wonderland sequences.

If you go to see it, head for a theater that uses Christie or Barco DLP projectors. You’ll see a lot more contrast and better color saturation.