Alice Through the Looking Glass

Starring: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Sacha Baron Cohen, Rhys Ifans, Matt Lucas, Lindsay Duncan, Leo Bill, Andrew Scott, Richard Armitage, Michael Sheen (voice), Stephen Fry (voice), Alan Rickman (voice), Timothy Spall, Toby Jones (uncredited)
Directed by: James Bobin
Rating: PG
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returns to Wonderland, where she must help the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) find his family.

Review:

Tim: I really wasn't a fan of the Disney live action remake of Alice in Wonderland. The movie was okay, but it utilized far too much CGI, over-prioritized Johnny Depp, and just didn't tell a powerful enough story. I certainly didn't think we needed a sequel, but the first movie exploded at the box office, so here we are. I will say that I'm pretty excited this inferior sequel did $250 million LESS than the first film. That's astounding and it speaks volumes about what people thought about the first movie. It's time to move off this franchise.

One of the biggest issues I had with this film was its insistence on focusing on Johnny Depp. I was very thankful that Depp has much less screen time this time around, but still, there was no reason for the movie to center around his character and Alice's search for his believed-to-be-dead family. It felt like this was done because Depp is a huge movie star, not out of any desire to tell the best story possible. This is a flaw that wrecks the whole movie's quality. The story about time and moving through time was okay, but it certainly didn't wow me. Once again, we're escorted through a world that relies far too much on CGI. Nothing feels real or believable. Someday that might be okay to do this, when specials effects are so good that we truly don't know when to believe our eyes. We're not there yet, and the rainbow colored, candy coated world we see feels fake and made up. So, we don't really buy into the world and we're saddled with a lackluster plot about a character we don't care all that much about. It's not looking great so far.

Johnny Depp is okay as the Mad Hatter, but his whole crazy thing has really lost its luster. There was a time when he was the biggest movie star in the world. Now, truly, when I see he's in a film, I groan. Chances are, it's not going to be very good. Now, Depp is average, but Mia Wasikowski really came more into her own in this film. I still don't love her, but she did a mostly good job of playing Alice. We still don't really connect with her, but she had a great deal to do in this film and couldn't hide behind the rest of the cast as much. She showed improvement, even though she's not all the way there yet. Helena Bonham Carter continues to annoy me. She didn't need to be in this film. The same can be said for Anne Hathway (she doesn't really annoy me, but she has nothing to do here). Sacha Baron Cohen was decent in a surprisingly large role. I wouldn't have minded having a few of his scenes cut- he's simply not as interesting a character as the movie believes he is. He really does get a ton of screen time. The rest of the supporting cast is fine, but few really get to make a mark- even the great Alan Rickman (well, his voice) doesn't get enough airtime.

I can't say I am a big fan of James Bobin as a director. While The Muppets was good (mostly due to Jason Segel, though), he butchered Muppets Most Wanted and then managed to deliver an even less impressive Alice sequel. It just never felt like he had command of the film. The script was too scattered- it desperately needed more focus and to cut unnecessary characters. Bobin deserves a great deal of the blame for this movie being as bad as it was.

I think why I disliked this movie is that it felt like a rush job to capitalize on the surprising success of the first movie. This one tried to cram in as many of the characters from the first film as possible, and it simply repeated the same mistakes in the first film. Yes, that movie made a ton of money, but a lot of it was due to 3D in the wake of Avatar's success. The first movie was decent, but it had major flaws. This one learned nothing from that. That's an egregious failure and I'm extremely happy this movie did so poorly at the box office. I'm honestly so frustrated with Disney's obvious cash grab at remaking all their animated films into live action ones. Yes, movies like The Jungle Book and Pete's Dragon are good, but there's too many disappointing ones. Alice Through the Looking Glass is one of those movies. This is a mess of a film that felt like it was going through the motions.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, Pete's Dragon