Tim Burton and Disney's $1B CGI, 3D-ized Alice in
Wonderland arrived at
just the right time. In 2010 we were coming off the history-making box office
of James Cameron's Avatar,
and audiences were fascinated with 3D's potential. Was the film any good? Well,
it looked pretty, but was perhaps the worst example of the cold lifelessness of
computer animated saturation. Now six years later Disney is cashing in again
with Alice Through the Looking
Glass, and unfortunately for it, audiences are well aware of its tricks
this time.
Resembling nothing that author Lewis
Carrol ever wrote; Alice
Through the Looking Glass is
a nonsensical mish-mash of half-baked ideas. Are we quite sure the Mad Hatter
(Johnny Depp) isn't responsible for the screenplay rather than the returning
Linda Woolverton? She cooks up a story that seems to do everything in its power
to make us hate every single character in Wonderland, most of all Alice (Mia
Wasikowska) who can rightfully be called the villain this time around. Of
course she's not framed that way. Years have passed and she's been off acting
as a sea captain, battling fierce pirates only marginally less terrifying than
the crashing waves. When she arrives back on land, the real world intrudes on
her sea-faring career path. Society frowns on a young woman in such a dangerous
field, and Alice's former fiancé Hamish is keen on buying her boat and forcing
her into a boring clerk job. 
The real world segment has no bite.
Carroll was pretty good at weaving such social commentary into his work but
here we know it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is when Alice
arrives back in Wonderland. It doesn't take Alice long before she does, aided
by Absalom, the caterpillar-turned-butterfly voiced by the late great Alan
Rickman. Hearing his voice again will stir up emotions in you than the rest of
the film won't.
All is not well in Wonderland. The Mad
Hatter isn't really mad anymore; he's the Sad Hatter. A found memento reminds
him of his dearly departed family, who were all burned to a crisp by the Red
Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and her fiery Jabberwocky. Okay...so why is
this a big deal? Everyone, including the preening White Queen (Anne Hathaway),
the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen), Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), and Tweedledee
and Tweedledum (Matt Lucas), think it's a big deal that the Hatter gets his
mojo back. So Alice steals from the master of Time (Sacha Baron Cohen, who may
be aping Christoph Waltz) a device that will allow her to travel back in time
and fix everything that's gone wrong. The down side? Oh, it threatens to rip
the very fabric of existence asunder. Oops, but Mad Hatter really needs to be
crazy again. That's more important. 
The premise couldn't be more flimsy, and
every time Alice tries to explain to Time that destroying all life to save her
friend is worthy it comes off as ludicrous. The story can never really escape
that, hard as it may try, and kids seeing the film will be taught that
selfishness is awesome and everyone should just accept it. Not sure
that's what Woolverton and director James Bobin were going for. The only thing
less convincing than Alice's quest is a meager "revelation" about the
beef between the sibling Red and White Queens. You think they've been tart to
one another before now? Trust that it gets much worse. Also, despite being
integral to the narrative we don't get to see much of Depp at all. And when we
do he just looks like a weirdo with a really bad makeup job. There's little
compelling about the Hatter, and certainly not enough to convince us he's worth
risking the universe over. Why doesn't someone just slap him and say "Get
over it"? 
In taking over for Burton, James Bobin
does a decent job of mimicking his predecessor. From a technical standpoint the
film is gorgeous, especially Time's mechanized clockwork realm. But unlike
Disney's superb The Jungle Book,
there's no emotion or life behind all of these green screen landscapes. So we
know Disney knows how to pull this sort of thing off; they just haven't been
able to do it with their 'Alice' movies yet. If Alice Through the Looking Glass makes a ton of money none of that will
matter. But if it doesn't, hopefully they'll spend some precious time making
sure they get the next one right, or better yet, stopping the clock on this
franchise altogether.
Rating: 1 out of 5
