REVIE: Alice Through The Looking Glass (PG)

Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) returns in the sequel to one of the top ten films of all time, Alice in Wonderland. Disney go all out to try and recreate the curious magic of the first movie and it starts off promising as all the cast and characters reunite in the first one, including a few lines of dialogue from the late Alan Rickman as Absolom, the Blue Caterpillar/Butterfly.

Starting a scene in battle between ships in a sequence that would not look out of place in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Alice is captain of her father’s ship Wonder (which she got involved with at the end of the last movie). As she attempts the impossible (rather successfully I might add), she returns to London safe after a few years away on the high seas. Seeing more of the world than her wealthy counterparts, she visits her employers, including wealthy bore-merchant Hamish, whom she declined to marry in the first movie. Still with his nose out of joint after last time, he has caught her in between a rock and a hard place and gives her two options – the ship or her home. Alice’s mother is all for Alice giving up her ship, but Alice isn’t so sure. After being forced into a decision, she declines both and runs off to be by herself. As she starts to cry over her hopeless situation, Absolom, the blue butterfly, attracts her attention as she is needed in Underland. She jumps through a mirror (which for all intents and purposes is “the looking glass” of the title) and finds the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) is dying and needs her help. As all of Underland backs her to go back in time to find the Mad Hatter’s family to save him, she must try and “lend” a chronograph from Time himself (Sacha Baron Cohen) to sort it all out. However, it doesn’t run as smoothly as that.

Alice 2 (as I will call it now) suffers in that although the characters and actors from the first movie remain, the story itself is a run of the mill adventure and lacked the necessary thrills and skills that would classify as a classic. It does its job but lacks something but I don’t know what.

Afterwards we spoke of the movie and we concluded that maybe it was because the original tale is so iconic that this one was always going to be a struggle to live up to the next one. However, for all that the nonsense of the original, this one was a more straight forward adventure. Some strong acting from the cast and some thought provoking lines of dialogue, but over all a just above average move. Disney have done better in the past.

POPSCORE: 7/10

What am I talking about? Alice Through The Looking Glass movie
Where can I find out more? http://movies.disney.co.uk/alice-through-the-looking-glass
If you liked this try: Alice in Wonderland (either the Disney Classic animation or the 2010 live action prequel to this), Labyrinth, Never Ending Story, City of Ember 

Anything else?

The characters have all been given actual names - unlike in the book - for example the Cheshire Cat is known as Chessur.
This was Alan Rickman's last movie he worked on before he died (though I may need to check this fact) however, the movie has a dedication to him in the credits.