Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)

Good movie but grossly overrated

Good concept, poorly executed.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The two Alice books are must-read classics, and have found their way onto screen in many different versions. James Bobin's film is a direct sequel to Tim Burton's Wonderland film: both take their names from Lewis Carroll's books, but neither takes any more than characters from them: Alice Through The Looking Glass is another original story.The end of Burton's Alice In Wonderland movie saw our heroine ditch her nerdy fiancée and go off to sea. Through the Looking Glass starts with a dramatic sea chase, before Absalom the Butterfly (voiced by Alan Rickman in his final cinema work) calls her back to Underland, where the Mad Hatter (now named as Tarrant Hightopp) is pining away for his lost family. Alice's adventure - seeking the Hightopp family - involves her stealing a time machine from Time himself, a menacing personification of entropy, who is understandably miffed at having this mechanism nicked, especially given that it has the potential to unravel reality.In short, the story has nothing whatsoever to do with Carroll's book. Having said that, it's not a bad story - it holds the attention, has lots of eventfulness and action, illuminates some of the characters, offers a couple of emotional moments, and allows Johnny Depp to mug from under the Hatter's elaborate makeup. I preferred it to the story offered in the previous film.The visuals are, as expected, impressive, and Sacha Baron Cohen's Time is a good addition to the cast. Rhys Ifans as the Hatter's Dad makes less impression. The reservations I had with the first film are still there - Barbara Windsor is just plain Wrong as the voice of the dormouse, naming the characters is both unnecessary and irritating, Anne Hathaway's White Queen's airy-fairy affectations get on your nerves, and Helena Bonfire Carter's Red Queen is still nicked wholesale from Queenie in Blackadder.Mia Wasikowska's Alice is pleasingly feisty, more so than she was in Wonderland. And so we come to Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter. We've seen the character before, of course, and Depp once more gives us the gentle, lisping, well-spoken and slightly barmy Hatter who has a bond with Alice, as well as the occasional psychopath from the Gorbals. To these he adds the declining depressive, a sad reflection of the heartier main iteration. But ultimately they are all Johnny Depp doing funny voices under funny makeups and, despite their appeal, I do find myself wondering if Depp has now overdone the heavily disguised eccentric phase of his career.This is nonetheless an enjoyable film, more so than its predecessor.

I couldn't have been less interested in this franchise, completely dumbfounded as to why they were trying to make sense out of an intentionally non-sensical world. This sequel continues that journey into unneeded clarity, though with better results. Maybe I was just more prepared for what was to come, but I also think it has decent emotional arcs and cool visual ideas, despite Depp's lazy performance and way too much plot.

The Sequel to the 2010 hit Alice in wonderland. now both you and i know how bad was the first one. This one at least had some elements from the books, the visuals were better asswell, in Alice in wonderland it was dark and griddy wich doesn't fi wonderland. Thow to be fair it fits underland.This one is bright,colourful and neon.But it's still trying to make wonderland an action pack war movie with rebelion and it just doesn't work.I dare say the acting was a lot better to. Alice at least was more intrested on what was going on and even Deep got better at scenes. Thow in some he was even worse (YOURE ALIIIIIIICE). And finally the god of this film TIME. time played by sosa barron koan was really a god. He is like David cross from the cipmunks the one star it diserves it just because of him.

Tim Burton's reimagining of Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland' in 2010 was far from anything special, but its ability to engage the audiences with its dazzling visual imagery in an effort to distract the director's drift from the familiarity of the source material proved to be enough to make a head-spinning earning at the box office. After sitting through this film's follow-up, which picks up shortly where the end of the film left off, I was only left pondering with the question of why a sequel was even remotely necessary. With Tim Burton reassigned to the producer's chair, James Bobin takes over the director's role in attempt to squeeze the small remaining juice out of the source material, but does with results that are a bit underwhelming to say the least. This film, following the eponymous character on yet another adventure through Wonderland dazzles with just about everything from the visuals to the quirky humor that made granted appeal to its predecessor except a satisfying story. What Bobin's leaves us with is more of a roller coaster ride through a cave of wacky cartoon imagery than a cohesive family fun picture. The film focuses on Alice (played by Mia Wasikowska) who disappears through a mirror and into the magical world of Wonderland where she reunites with the White Queen (played by Anne Hathaway), bobbled head twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum (both played by Matt Lucas), the chesire cat, and white rabbit. They inform her of the urgent news of the Mad Hatter (played by Johnny Depp) growing ill due to his depression of the loss of his family. To save the poor man from his fate, Alice must travel back in time with the help of Time "himself" (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) to change the course of events that led to the death of family at the hands of the Red Queen (played by Helena Bonham Carter).For a continuation on Lewis Carroll's classic source material, you would think that writer Linda Woolverton would come up with a premise little more thoughtful than what is sold here. Sadly, that is the only beginning of the misdeed that drives this fairy tale into diminishing effect. The best thing James Bobin's wrings out the picture is an overwhelming barrage of colorful visual design of the whimsical world of Wonderland completed with bloated CGI that pits Aussie actress Mia Wasikowska with the daunting task of interacting with mysterious creatures who only exist in the computer. Wasikowska manages to pull it off and Bobin's makes a fabulous attempt at springing the imaginative world to life. But for everything and everyone else though, that is another story. Wasikowska is left adrift in a story that, while has its moments, never gets truly engaging. The moments of excitement are scarce as the film pedaling swiftly from subplot to another without giving any of the classic supporting character a time to shine. It is especially disappointing for Johnny Depp's Mad Matter who stole the show in the previous film, and is succumbing to a performance that is more vexing than charming. If there is anyone even remotely as charming as Wasikowska here, it is Sacha Baron Cohen, giving a quirky impression of his loopy character. On the other hand, the fun is left to the climax when Alice and the rest of the characters are forced to make a daring attempt to save Wonderland as the entire place from ground is up is morphing into rust. It's too bad however, that lot of the pulse-pounding excitement is left buried under an uninspired plot while the visual effects are left to stand out with open arms. On the bright side, it does make a sweet visual ride with who happen to see this in 3-D.Alice Through the Looking Glass is an underwhelming fantasy ride that benefits from striking visual methodology that manages stick out among the uninspired mess of a story. That is not to say this doesn't make for a wholesome family entertainment, but there are certainly better options to say the least.