Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)

Alice’s (Mia Wasikowska) fortunes are taking a nasty turn right when she spots a mirror that leads her back to Underland. Once there she finds that the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) is dying due to grief over his long dead family. The White Queen (Anne Hathaway) encourages Alice to travel back in time to save his family, but to do so will make an enemy out of Time himself (Sacha Baron Cohen), who happens to be dating the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter).

“Cynical money-grubbing exercise” is a phrase I’ve heard used for Alice Through The Looking Glass, and one that seems to have doomed the film at the box office, but only because it is completely accurate. Alice In Wonderland (2010) was a huge hit, far beyond expectations, which meant there was more money to be had. Now much of the film business has a touch of cynical money-grubbing about it, but normally the powers-that-be have the good graces to attempt to hide it, that or do their money-grubbing at levels other than the script. But with Alice 2, nothing is done because someone had a good idea (that they could then be money-grubbing about) or they wanted to express a deep theme (perhaps cynically). Even Alien v Predator had more integrity.

Through the Looking Glass isn’t an unpleasant film. I’ve enjoyed films less that I rate better. It is a pretty film and some of the art design is spectacular. And there’s certainly some talent in front of the cameras, even if it is mostly wasted. There are many objective qualities dealing with filmmaking for which Alice 2 ranks quite highly. And it is far less boring then dozens of other films put out this year. If it was a stand-alone film I might give it an extra reel and say to turn it on if it happens to pop up on free TV. Not a ringing endorsement, I know, but better than saying to avoid it.

But it isn’t a stand-alone film. It is a sequel. And a sequel has one job: Don’t mess up the original. And in that Alice 2 fails. Not on the level of Alien 3’s failure, but enough. It makes the world so much smaller. It makes things that were of great importance trivial. It weaken characters. It forces a kind of logic on surreal situations and lessens the world Disney had constructed.

Alice 2 is more prequel than sequel. The time travel “plot” allows for origin stories for both the Red & White Queens as well as the Hatter. But these are origin stories that not only are unnecessary, they rip at the fabric of the movie. Explanations should not be attempted for nonsense, and nonsense is at the heart of both Lewis Carroll’s work and Tim Burton’s. There is no emotional heart to the picture, only information we were better off without. When not in the past, we get family reunions no one has asked for. In the “real world” we get to revisit things that were firmly settled in the previous film and should have been left that way.

The marketing was all about Johnny Depp and so was the film (remember, cynical money-grubbing) which makes it doubly unfortunate that he is terrible. Depp is an idiosyncratic actor and there is often only a short distance between his brilliance and his embarrassing failure. This time he jumped over to the embarrassing side. Most of the rest of the characters, the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), Tweedledee/Tweedledum (Matt Lucas), the Dormouse (Barbara Windsor) the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen), and Absolem (Alan Rickman) have no purpose in the film but are there because this is a sequel and that’s how cash-based sequels work.

If I’m sounding too negative, I will admit that Alice Through The Looking Glass would make a fine screen saver.