Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)

Genre

Adventure | Fantasy

Director

James Bobin

Country

USA

Cast

Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Sacha Baron Cohen, Rhys Ifans, Matt Lucas, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Barbara Windsor, Paul Whitehouse, Matt Vogel, Louise Ashbourne Serkis, Leilah de Meza, Amelia Crouch, Kyle Herbert

Storyline

Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returns to the magical world of Underland, only to find the Hatter (Johnny Depp) in a horrible state. With the help of her friends, Alice must travel through time to save the Mad Hatter and Underland's fate from the evil clutches of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and a clock like creature (Sasha Baron Cohen) known as Time.

Opinion

My first thought at the end of the movie? Alan Rickman deserved a better final film. A way better film.

Just like its predecessor "Alice in Wonderland", "Alice Through the Looking Glass" is another example of what happens when you focus on the visual aspect and completely forget about a thing called screenplay.

I haven't read Lewis Carroll's book so I don't know how faithful this adaptation is, but I sure can say how awful the plot and storytelling to this film is. There is no suspense whatsoever, no interesting characters, no memorable scenes, no compelling conflicts between the characters, and it really can't get more predictable and boring than this.

The film also fails to establish a connection of any kind with the characters, and even though the premise of the film is based on Alice saving the Mad Hatter from his illness, I - and I'm sure the few people I was sharing the movie theater with - couldn't care less.

And it is also pretty dumb. All the tea party characters are sad because the Hatter has given up on life because his family is presumed dead, and apparently his family is the most important thing to him. I didn't know I was going to watch a fantasy-weird version of Don Vito Corleone, but okay.

The cast isn't that good either. This time around, Mia Wasikowska fails completely in of role of Alice, and she looks like she's pissed and talking to a child the whole film. Johnny Depp is getting very, very annoying with his "acting" style and his annoying accent. Sacha Baron Cohen, who I was hoping would have brought some comedy at least, is utterly annoying and I couldn't understand what he was saying half of the time. Helena Bonham Carter reprises her role as the Red Queen, but doesn't deliver much. Anne Hathaway has the same expression through the whole movie.

As mentioned before, the film is visually stunning, but a pretty face is nothing if you have an ugly heart, so it doesn't matter how beautiful, impressive the packaging is, if there is nothing inside, you get an awful film.