Alice Through the Looking Glass

Tim Burton refused to direct this movie..and there is a reason..simply the script is terrible. There is no real and solid story behind this movie if not a marketing operation. The direction works well, nothing special but nothing you can complain about, also the rhythm and the storytelling works good, the problem is the script. The movie is visually stunning , probably visual effects are the only reason to watch this movie. Jhonny Deep is probably on his worst interpretation, he isn't able to transmit anything not even the madness of his character. Mia Wasikovska is the only one who truly believe in the project and tries to produce a decent interpretation. Sacha Baron Coen is funny on his character but maybe he could add more personality in his interpretation. As I already said you can watch this movie just for the amazing visual effects..but without a decent story isn't so entertaining

I love Alice in Wonderland - In fact I love most fairy tale/fantasy movies. With the first Tim Burton Alice movie I wasn't disappointed, but the story took me by surprise. The same goes for this movie. But the surprise for me was that I really enjoyed this movie. I wasn't sure what to expect, so I went in not expecting much - and though the story line was a little bland - It was nice to see what became of Alice - Also in this movie, you learn things about people you didn't know. Such as the White and Red Queen's childhood. Take a step through the looking glass and follow Alice through an adventure to save The Mad Hatter's family - In a race to turn back time, Alice goes on another adventure and learns some things that cannot change the past, but can change the present.

Bottom line: The perfectly OK Alice Through the Looking Glass is getting pretty terrible reviews but I don't really know why; it makes me want to ask, "What were you expecting?" 2.5/4

Alice Through the Looking Glass is the sequel to Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. In this adventure, the Mad Hatter (Depp) is dying of sadness because he believes that his family (long thought to have perished at the hands of the Jabberwocky) is actually alive but just lost. Alice has to, once again, go into Wonderland to save the day even if it means traveling through time.

How's that for a spoiler free plot teaser? Any-who, the first thing I would like to note about this iteration of the franchise is how it's not directed by Tim Burton and you can tell because we aren't being beaten over the head with whimsy. We've got Johnny Depp returning as the Mad Hatter but he's just kind of in the background doing his thing instead of being center stage.

While I didn't see the first one, my wife did and she thought this one was better. I suspect that that might be the case because with the first one, the crux of the movie is the spectacle that is Burton's interpretation of Alice in Wonderland; we have to introduce all of the characters and tie them all together with an adventure. In Through the Looking Glass, we can just have an adventure.

The performances were all perfectly good. In one review, someone said that Sasha Baron Cohen's performance of Time was just Cohen doing an impression of Werner Herzog. Herzog is the guy who made Grizzly Man. Sure, I can see that in terms of his accent but I don't think it's a minus point to the movie. I thought he was a solidly balanced character that I enjoyed watching.

The big thing about this movie were the special effects. I thought there were fine too; not earth shattering nor dull.

Maybe one of the reasons I didn't mind this movie was because my expectations were appropriately grounded. I was expecting it to be unwatchably bad. Another reason was that I had just finished watching Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which I loathed, so Through the Looking Glass felt like a Burton-esque film that wasn't garbage. Overall, I'd recommend Alice Through the Looking Glass if you are looking for a light movie, maybe a weekend matinée.

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.

Alice travels into the past on an adventure to save the Mad Hatter from the grief that is poisoning him.

Set in 1875, it brings up albeit only briefly explores the misogyny of patriarchy, where mediocre men take away everything from extraordinary women through the limitations they put on them. It seems more comfortable examining problems between family members; Tarrant feels rejected by his father, mostly because he has been. And this is of course a much safer thing for a mainstream film to go into, and Disney prefers taking the well trodden path to profit to taking risks. Just like the Tim Burton original, this is nowhere near as creative and imaginative as the 1951 original, or, from what I hear, the novels. This does take a few steps in the right direction, though both of these definitely lose something in trying to make Wonderland a real, physical place that operates on some continuity and logic, when part of the appeal was that this was not the case. I appreciate that this is something that has been done with a lot of adaptations in recent years, and a lot, perhaps even most, of the time that is the right approach; however, like any rule, it has exceptions, and this is one. This is essentially Back to the Future in a fantasy setting; if you altered various aesthetic aspects, and a handful of lines of dialog, you would never get that it was related to the work of Lewis Carroll, which should never be the case with this sort of thing. The third Men in Black movie has a similar issue.

It is very much one of those sequels that expects you to have watched and remember the predecessor; it doesn't particularly reintroduce the recurring characters. The action is exciting, especially in the effective climax. This is filmed and edited well, capturing the sometimes epic scope. The special effects are convincing, and the design of sets, creatures, makeup and costumes is impressive and provides a very high number of memorable, unique sights and sounds. These include traversing the face of a massive clock, living chess pieces, seconds becoming minutes(you'll know it when you reach it), talking animals, bipedal vegetables, loops and a seemingly non-stop barrage of time puns. The cast are clearly having a ball, in particular the always deeply engaging to watch Helena Bonham Carter.

I recommend this only to the biggest fans of those involved. 7/10.