Film Review: "Alice Through the Looking Glass" (2016).

"It's Time For A Little Madness" in Alice Through the Looking Glass. This live-action/animated fantasy adventure film directed by James Bobin, written by Linda Woolverton and based on the characters created by Lewis Carroll. It is the sequel to the 2010 film Alice in Wonderland (2010). When Alice comes across a magical looking glass and returns to the fantastical realm of Underland, she discovers that her friend the Mad Hatter has lost his Muchness and embarks on a perilous race to save him before time runs out.

In December 2012, the film was announced via Variety with Bobin hired to direct. In late January 2014, after numerous titles, the film was again retitled to Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass. By early August, Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Matt Lucas, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, Lindsay Duncan, Andrew Scott, and Richard Armitage, and features the voices talents of Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Barbara Windsor, Paul Whitehouse, and Alan Rickman returned to reprise their roles. Whilst newcomers Sacha Baron Cohen, Rhys Ifans, Andrew Scott, Richard Armitage, Matt Vogel and Wally Wingert were cast. The film would be Rickman's last film. He died four months before the release. This movie is dedicated to his memory. His final non-voice acting role was in Eye in the Sky (2015), which was released before he died. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in late October. Filming took place at Shepperton Studios in Shepperton, Surrey, England.

The film stars Depp, Hathaway, Wasikowska, Lucas, Ifans, Carter, Cohen, Duncan, Scott, and Armitage, and features the voices talents of Fry, Sheen, Spall, Windsor, Vogel, Whitehouse, Wingert, and Rickman. The cast, as usual, are magnificently portraying the wild and bonkers inhabitants of Underland.

There's a lot of money on the screen, the cast are once again really good in the film, the musical score is great, and some of the action sequences are cool. But the story this time around is even less investing than last time. These elements give the movie a nice shine, but when you bust out the polish to make your shoe look pretty, it doesn't make a difference if the sole is missing. The film is simultaneously overdone and undercooked, with a lot of the customary mistakes of giant studio entertainment. It is a feast for the senses and the mind in terms of pure fantasy and imagination buries significant character opportunities, as if the writers were tasked to combine three different scripts that defied being strung together. As much as I hate to say it, if you love Alice and her story, stop at the 2010 film or even rewatch the classic Alice in Wonderland. This sequel doesn't do the character or the Disney legacy justice. Fleshing out the characters; origins felt unnecessary, the attention given to this did feel like a departure from the rest of the story, only coming together in the final act, leaving the audience to wonder why we should care, or even why they would.

Simon says Alice Through the Looking Glass receives:

Also, see my review for Muppets Most Wanted.