'Alice Through the Looking Glass' Review

Alice in Wonderland was financially successful and even one of Disney's first films to cross the billion dollar mark at the worldwide box office, so from a business standpoint I'm sure it made perfect sense to make a sequel. However, the critical reception was decisively mixed from both audiences and critics and neither showed signs of interest in a sequel.

Regardless, Disney reasoned a sequel was warranted and here we are with the results. I'll admit that I dreaded going to watch this as it tanked at the box office last weekend, wasn't too well received by audiences or critics, and I'm not a fan of the animated version or the 2010 live action incarnation. I decided to watch it since I had already written a Throwback Thursday Review for it's predecessor and I wanted to check it out for myself and see if it was truly that bad.

Alice Through the Looking Glass picks up relatively soon after Alice in Wonderland (I don't think the time gap was ever specified, and it wasn't important enough for me to remember if it was), and the audience learns that the Mad Hatter is in peril, so Alice must travel through time to save him. That's the lead up of events in the first act in a nut shell.

Alice's actions have plenty of huge repercussions, and my biggest issue with the story is that at the end of the film it's almost as though she didn't need to travel through time to help the Hatter. It bothered me that this made Alice seem stubborn and ignorant, seeing as she selfishly unknowingly wreaked havoc on Underland and wasn't reprimanded for such actions. The time travel allowed for many interesting concepts, but unfortunately almost none were fleshed out.

James Bobin takes the helm from Tim Burton as director and the change up behind the scenes is especially evident as Wonderland or Underland is visually much brighter and colorful as opposed to Burton's darker oblique tones. This was a welcome change for the visual aesthetic, as I found its predecessor to be too dark and just downright strange.

The visual style is once again fantastic to look at, but still odd nonetheless. The visual effects are improved for the most parts but there are some bits that were poorly rendered. The costumes, production design, and hair and makeup are fairly decent, but not as impressive as the precursor.

The screenplay written by Linda Woolverton has many of the same issues I found in the first with absurd dialogue, a weak plot, and lackluster story, but this time around actually puts Alice front and center. The characters are again simpletons as many of the characters have virtually no knowledge of ongoing events till reminded by one single word.

For example, the characters act like they no absolutely nothing about time travel what so ever until the White Queen mentions that none of them can go along... to which the characters nod their head. The supporting characters were actually written to be of absolutely no importance to any of the ongoing events, they contribute virtually nothing to the story. These characters aren't given any humorous bit parts, memorable one-liners, or even any development whatsoever as they merely embrace all the one-note caricatures exhibited in the forerunner.

In regards to performances, all virtually do the same thing they did in the last film. Mia Wasikowska is better this time around in the role of Alice though, as we actually see her emote. Something that definitely didn't happen in the first. 

Johnny Depp lazily provides virtually the same performance as the bonkers Mad Hatter, but delivers dialogue as though he has some kind of speech impediment and once again can't maintain a consistent accent. Like I said in my review of Alice in Wonderland, I feel Depp isn't giving his all because he is a versatile talented actor and I've seen him perform much better, but I think in this case, he's merely working to work and get a nice paycheck. 

Anne Hathaway plays the White Queen, and once again daintly and obnoxiously wafts her hand in the air.

Helena Bonham Carter screams in practically every scene as the Red Queen, which is frankly very annoying. Sacha Baron Cohen is one of the few newcomers to the group as Time, who's essentially the antagonist of the piece and has the wonkiest inconsistent European accent I have ever heard. At times he sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger and other times he dropped the accent altogether making for a rather uncommitted showcase.

Matt Lucas, Michael Sheen, Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman, Barbara Windsor, Paul Whitehouse, and Timothy Spall all return to once again lend their voices to memorable characters from the animated classic including Tweedle-Dee/Dum, the White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, the Blue Butterfly, Dormouse, the March Hare, and Bayard respectively (Apparently this time they were given names aside from the classic names, but I'm going to refer to them all as they are more well known). This time around each of the actors I just listed had significantly less to say and as I said earlier virtually no significance to the story aside from actually being present. 

Another returning player was the composer Danny Elfman, who once again composes a fabulous score. Thankfully, his composition matches the quickened fantasy adventure tone this time around, so that's one significant improvement from his previous score for Alice in Wonderland. 

If you enjoyed the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland or the animated version, you may like this. Otherwise, I'd advise skipping out on seeing it in the cinema, if you want to see it badly enough but are discouraged wait to rent it from Redox or something. Alice Through the Looking Glass does fix some issues I had with the first but ultimately brings a weaker less cohesive jumbled mess of a story, a plethora of pathetic performances, and has yet to invest me in any of the characters that supposedly warranted this sequel in the first place.

Film Assessment: F