Alice Through The Looking Glass

Borrowing the name and characters of Lewis Carroll's novel (and nothing else), Alice Through The Looking Glass creates an original sequel to her 2010 adventures in Wonderland.

After her livelihood is threatened in the real world, Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is called to step through the looking glass and to once again return to Wonderland. There she finds all her old friends, but discovers that the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) is gravely ill. Having discovered that the family he thought dead may still be alive, he has finally lost complete control of his wits and is on the verge of destruction. Never acknowledging the meaning of the word 'impossible' Alice resolves to search for the Hatter's kin, planning to travel through time to retrieve them. To accomplish this she must steal the means from Time (Sacha Baron Cohen) himself, but as she creeps into his fortress she discovers an old foe waiting.

There is something askew about the storytelling in this film. It begins strongly, with a rollicking action sequence demonstrating the strength and cunning of Alice in the real world, but soon looses its momentum and starts to drag. The time travelling nature of the story actually robs the protagonist of much of her agency. So despite the first act re-establishing Alice's credentials as a woman of action and lateral thinker, the main-body of the story locks her into the role of a passive observer who is unable to effect anything. As such it become more of roller-coaster ride of computer effects and needless character back story, without any significant drama.

Alice regains some of this momentum in the finale, as she is allowed to be active again and learns from her adventures. However having this strong female character rail-roaded through so much of the plot, lessens the experience. Indeed the script seems full of half-baked machinations and plot conveniences, leaving a lot unexplained.

Still, when all is said and done, Alice Through the Looking Glass is a sumptuous film to look at, with wonderful costuming and design. The special effects still bring Wonderland to life with a sense of comic glee, and less of the dark Victorian foreboding expressed in Burton's iteration.

If you are a fan of the first, chances are this will be your cup of imaginary tea. For the rest of us, this probably gets the chop.

Originally published in X-Press Magazine