Film review of the Disney sequel to Alice in Wonderland that is extremely loosely based on Lewis Carroll's work.
Director: James Bobin. Walt Disney Pictures, Tim Burton Productions, Roth Films, et.al.
Adventure, Family, Fantasy.
Cast & Credits.
Producers: Tim Burton, Joe Roth, Jennifer Todd, Suzanne Todd.
Writer: Linda Woolverton.
Camera: Stuart Dryburgh.
Music: Danny Elfman.
Sets: Dan Hennah.
Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Sasha Baron Cohen, Rhys Ifans, Matt Lucas, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Timothy Spall, Barbara Windsor, Michael Sheen, Lindsay Duncan.
Synopsis:
Alice (Wasikowska) returns once again to the realm of Wonderland to find that her The Mad Hatter (Depp) has become reclusive and depressed. Haunted by his past, he is convinced that his family are still alive.
Alice turns to Time (Cohen) himself to ask if she can go back in time to save The Mad Hatter's family.
Despite Time's warnings that the past cannot be changed, she steals his time traveling machine.
It now becomes a literal race against Time, as Alice explores the past and learns more about the inhabitants of Wonderland.
Review:
Back in 2010 Burton's Alice in Wonderland received mixed reviews. Critics were not a fan of the director's conventional gothic tones and unnecessary complex storyline, which were adapted from Lewis Carroll's materials, that are whimsical and nonsensical. Yet box office success alone granted it an obvious money grabbing sequel.
This time with James Bobin taking the director's chair.
Bobin's mise en scène of Wonderland is an improvement in terms of how you'd imagine it to look.
The place is saturated in bright colours, and the use of CGI creates some stunningly intriguing landscapes; Time's lair being one of them. The style of the characters also continue to look impressive, Time once again standing out with his steampunk design.
The film's biggest problem however, is that despite there being so much going on cinematography wise, Alice Through the Looking Glass has little going on in its story.
Or rather, there is so much happening and yet nothing is happening. The story line is extremely basic, and is spent focusing more attention on characters, (mainly The Mad Hatter) rather than the realm of Wonderland. Furthermore, half way through the film we are introduced to a subplot regarding The White Queen (Hathaway) and The Red Queen (Carter) and suddenly the film shifts focus on the latter.
The narrative is a messy one, and not in Carroll's charming way.
Additionally, characters become bland. I found myself not caring for any of the characters, despite the film trying to force sympathetic backgrounds for them.
Alice herself doesn't develop as a heroine or as a person.
They begin the film by introducing her as a headstrong woman who is now the captain of her father's boat.
But once she returns to Wonderland, she is reduced to a one dimensional character. Her purpose in the film is to observe that learning from the past can help improve the present...something she realised from the first film!
The film is full of stunning visuals and Cohen's portrayal of Time is less annoying than one would assume. In the end however, the film can be summed up in one word; boring!
I know the Disney brand, and familiar characters will draw in audiences, but trust me when I say that your time can be better spent doing other activities.
