Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)

I really enjoyed the Alice in Wonderland film so I was looking forward to seeing this one. Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) is captaining her father's ship, The Wonder, escaping Malay pirates and giving orders to port while her crew is going to starboard but they escape anyway. She's a year late returning to London only to find that her father has died and her jilted fiancé Hamish has taken over. Her mother has agreed to sell the family's shares in the shipping company and give up The Wonder to save her home. Absolem (Alan Rickman) turns up and Alice follows him through the Looking Glass. The Hatter (Johnny Depp) is all depressed. He is haunted by memories of his family killed by the Jabberwocky. Alice has to get the Chronosphere from Time (Sacha Baron Cohen) and return to the past to save Hatter's family. The White Queen (Anne Hathaway) is there making strange gestures with her hands but with well-groomed eyebrows this time and the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) is back and apparently off her meds again. Then Alice wakes up and everything since she went through the looking glass was a dream while she was in the insane asylum. And the Hatter's family is fine, they have been living in an ant farm. The movie goes downhill from there.

Just saw on Netflix, not even interested to watch it but put it up to entertain my young niece while i browse away on the phone. But from the quick glances, eventually it pulled me in by the stunning visuals, beautifully crafted and unique constumes, special effects are feast for the eyes and the oh so wonderful witty and melodious dialogue was captivating and heartfelt. I never read Lewis Carroll before, only watched the movies or Disney cartoons. This is wonderful movie and a joy to watch. Main cast was amazing especially Johnny Depp, Mia and surprisingly Sacha Baron Cohen whom I'm not actually a fan, but his character was so interesting. Love this. Such an underrated movie. Watching this again later with full attention.

Despite the special effects being sometimes great and other times 'meh', Alice Through the Looking Glass surprised me a lot! It's very funny, light and pleasant to watch. Once again we saw Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter carry the movie but Mia Wasikowska is a lot better than before.. her acting is really good in this one. The meanings about Time and Family are really well done in almost every possible way.. the 'cause and effect' is on point. Really good movie.

I enjoyed the first film, I thought it struck a good balance between the whimsical eccentricity of the source material and the modern Hollywood demand for thrill ride action. But the second time around they get it all wrong, much as they did on the second Pirates of the Caribbean. Too much rushing around and too little humour and quirkiness. Firstly, right from the get go, they forget to maintain the vital distinction between the Fantasy World of Wonderland, where the impossible is common place, and the Real World, where the possible needs to remain within the constraints of the culture and available technology of the day, in order to be credible. So we get Alice, the teenage female Captain, sailing her Victorian sail powered merchant ship in ways that defy the laws of Real World physics (Groan) Who needs to visit Wonderland if we can bend the Real World to our will in this way? Secondly I think the decision to try and explain the backstory and motivation of the previous film's characters and situations was misguided. We don't need to know this, and it goes against the whole idea of "Wonderland", once things are explained, they often lose much of their "Magic", their wonder. The Queen of Hearts happens to be a bitch and she serves a purpose in the story, that is her only "why", we aren't supposed to understand or feel sorry for her. The fun of Wonderland is in the novelty of the experience and trying to explain it only dilutes or destroys that. Thirdly they don't introduce enough new characters or situations with the requisite quirkiness, the original is a parade of quirky characters, this one only has a few, with the space between filled up with, briefly, revisiting old ones and, mainly, by pointless rushing about. I enjoyed Sacha Baron-Cohen's "Time", but his assistants were merely derivative of other movies tiny mechanical robots, and there was very little else we hadn't already seen in the first movie. Too whoever wrote the script for this one I say "Off with their heads!"