Sitting through the new Alice In Wonderland movie, I was struck by many of the thoughts that I suspect many of you had, or will have. Primarily, I had to accept that the Tim Burton, whose films I used to absolutely adore, had finally left the building. Given the many hours I've devoted to watching Ed Wood, the two Batmans, Beetlejuice and such like, it's taken me a long time to reach this conclusion. But as a filmmaker, he's moved on, and I'm not sure it's to a better place. It's not a bad place, granted, but his movies continue to lack - once you get past the visuals and style - the spark that used to make them so strong.

However, that said, I quite enjoyed Alice In Wonderland, and thought it was much better than his film of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. I also thought that many of the interesting side characters were brushed past with little screen time devoted to them, and I was taken aback at the lack of humour for large parts of the film. I did warm immensely to Helena Bonham Carter's villainous Red Queen, though, who stole the show whenever she was allowed near the screen (she was channelling Miranda Richardson in Blackadder II at times, it seemed. And thus Richardson is the only other person I can think of who could have pulled the role off quite as well).

Oddly, even accepting that it's a hodge-podge of Lord Of The Rings/Harry Potter/name any other film of this ilk, I enjoyed the battle sequence near the end far more than I was expecting, too. I agree with much of what Michael Leader says in his review of the film, particularly the point that Tim Burton has suddenly turned into an entirely capable action director. I'd always have argued that was his weakness, and while the action comes when the movie is at its most homogenous, it's nonetheless really quite impressive.

Alice In Wonderland is a solid three star movie for me, but half way through it hit me what could have made it great. Because a film such as this is crying out for someone who can manage a real vision for it, and yet knit it to a compelling narrative with interesting characters. A director who could make the side characters as memorable as the leads, and not just because of audience foreknowledge of them.

In my mind, there was only man for the job: the late, great Jim Henson.

The loss of Henson at the age of just 45 remains a mighty tragedy in my eyes, and there were moments in Alice In Wonderland where I just caught a slight undertone of Labyrinth. That's what set me off. Can you imagine in Henson had tackled material such as this, ideally in-between making The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth? Because there's no way that Henson would have allowed characters such as The White Rabbit, Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee and The Cheshire Cat to be wheeled in as if they were celebrity cameos.

I'm still talking about characters who only appeared briefly in the likes of Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal 30 years later, and while I might still spare a word for the glorious Cheshire Cat, I can't imagine I'll be doing the same with Alice. It's as if Burton does half a job with most of them, setting them up to be characters who stick in our minds, but not quite taking them over the proverbial line.

Furthermore, Labyrinth - while a flawed film in its own right, granted - did a better job for me of conveying a child thrust into a strange world, adapting to it, and ultimately overcoming its challenges. I thought Mia Wasikowska was strong as Alice, and an able tour guide through Wonderland, but I'm not utterly sure that the material was strong enough in the end. The tepid wraparound story didn't help, but I still got the sense that her journey through Wonderland was on a narrative conveyor belt. Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth needed cunning, her wits, and ultimately to call on the characters around her in a more convincing way.

I don't look at the films of Jim Henson through rose-tinted specs, and I can list problems with his films, if required. But they all had a charm to them, and they all had a strength of character, right across the ensemble, that I just felt Burton's Alice In Wonderland was really crying out for.

Henson did sort-of-tackle Alice in an episode of The Muppet Show, and his Creature Shop provided characters for a late-90s TV take on the story. But never did he get to tackle a fully-blown feature of it.

Henson, in my mind, is the movie magician who, had he been with us, would have been best able to take the same ingredients but do something with them that was less interested in the stunning production design, and more interested in melding the assorted components of Alice in a tighter, more memorable family picture. And while I was quite satisfied with Tim Burton's take on the material, I can't help thinking that there was a chance of greatness here that was ultimately squandered.

Had Henson been with us, I think his Alice would have had its problems, but I'd argue the end result would be really very interesting, indeed. A good deal more interesting than the fun take on the material that hits cinemas today...

Alice In Wonderland is released today.