Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)

Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)

4/10

Starring

Johnny Depp

Anne Hathaway

Mia Wasikowska

Matt Lucas

Directed by James Bobin

Disney has had a wonderful 2016 with hits like, Captain America: Civil War, The Jungle Book, Zootopia and most recently Finding Dory.

Although this movie came out before Finding Dory, I took this long to see it because the pull that led me to see the first part of this sequel Alice in Wonderland (2010) has died over the years.

This then begs the question, “how long should sequels be apart?”

For me this movie was already on its way down before it started, who remembers Once Upon a Time in Wonderland in 2014, which was a spinoff of ABC (a Disney owned company) Once Upon a Time. The series failed to pick up steam and was dropped after just one season.

That was a sign that the 2010 movie was a fluke because even the 1951 Disney animation Alice in Wonderland was not well received critically and commercially upon its time of release.

Making this movie could appear as a great business decision, but they forget that they have wondered far from the original story in the first, that the possibility of this movie being anyway near Lewis Carroll 1871 book Through the Looking Glass was a fantasy in itself. Meaning when I saw the preview and read the reviews, I was already turned off from seeing this movie.

In the first film, everything was rewritten to make the Mad Hatter (Jonny Depp) the lead, here the same thing is done. Now if you have read the book, don’t bother looking for similarities between the book and the movie, there isn’t any.

If you recall the poem "Jabberwocky" which can only be read by viewing it in the mirror, it is not in this movie. The first book was set in a world of playing cards and the second in a chess like world, not so in this movie either.

In the first film, you will totally appreciate Tim Burton’s style of the visual concept, awesome lighting and the whole depiction of wonderland which can give you a visual orgasm, same here too.

And this movie has a posthumous performance from the late, great, Alan Rickman, who voiced Absolem, the Caterpillar.

Now the plot in this movie is as follows, a very irresponsible Alice carelessly steals the Chronospherewhich is the heart beat of time itself. She travels through time in the attempt of trying to save the Mad Hatter.

The Mad Hatter was dying because he found out his family was still alive and not killed by the Jabberwocky.

So we go on an adventure through time, trying to save the Mad Hatter from dying of sadness.

In the end I wished Disney didn’t venture down this path, the movie is boring.