Alice Through The Looking Glass

This review may contain spoilers!

This film has a great protagonist that is let down by the garbage script for this sequel/prequel. I would give Alice Through The Looking Glass a 4/10.

While there are some serious flaws with the plot of this film I have to admit that the main protagonist, Alice, is written really well; her perseverance and self-empowerment are great qualities. I also appreciated the focus put on backstories for some of the Wonderland characters in this film - specifically the Hatter, Iracebeth and Mirana; this meant these characters felt a lot more developed within this particular film. However the strength of this sequel is the visual aspects - particularly the special effects; there is a really unique visual style to this film that clearly took a tremendous amount of effort to create. I also liked the cinematography, there were some great shots that really hoped show the scale and size of these fantasy environments.

Sacha Baron Cohen, who played Time, was quite a funny and likeable role in this film; Cohen makes for a very erratic performance with some touching scenes between himself and Wasikowska. Rhys Ifans, who played Zanik Hightopp, made for a good father figure to the Hatter; his tough parent role made the background for the Hatter all the more interesting. Lindsay Duncan, who played Helen Kingsleigh, has some great development from a weak, cowardly role to a strong matriarch; Duncan's connection to Wasikowska was very clear and the relationship between these two was great to see. Leo Bill, who played Hamish, was a great weaselly antagonist for the 'real world' storyline; his arrogant air of superiority made him one of the more dislikeable and clear antagonists of the film. Timothy Spall, who voiced Bayard, has some great line delivery in this film; he acts as a great storyteller and recounts exposition really well. Michael Sheen, who voiced McTwisp, has the skittish voice of the White Rabbit down perfectly; Sheen's voicework provides a sense of urgency to the scenes he's in. Louis Ashbourne Serkis, who played Young Hatter, was a pretty good child actor; the grief he shows over his father destroying his hat makes for a very good scene. Leilah de Meza, who played Young Iracebeth, was another great performance by a child actor; her diction was very clear and she played a royal figure rather well.

However the best performance came from Mia Wasikowska, who played Alice Kingsleigh. In this film Alice is a strong, resourceful character who is quite visibly rocked to the core when she stands to lose her father's ship. What we have is a character who once believed in doing the impossible but who's faith in this is entirely shaken, throughout the film we see her reclaim this belief in what is some very good character development.

What makes this film so bad and drawn out is the fact that the stakes are never really high; the Hatter is sick so Alice goes back in time to save his family, however the Hatter doesn't exactly sit in the hearts of the audience so this entire storyline feels a little moot. As it stands the start of the film all around Alice's life in the 'real world' is by far the more interesting story, sadly it's never really given the attention it deserves and instead we're stuck with the mediocre Wonderland storyline. The score for this film is almost entirely forgettable, I walked away the Looking Glass trying to remember the music that accompanied key scenes and couldn't think of anything significant at all.

Johnny Depp, who played Hatter Tarrant Hightopp, doesn't really reconnect with Wasikowska all that well in this film; Depp's performance seems to be all over the place and it feels like he's majorly cashing it in. Helena Bonham Carter, who played Iracebeth, plays her character even more over the top than the last film; the entire motivation behind why her character is a villain is made unbearably weak in this sequel. Anne Hathaway, who played Mirana, just seems to be going through the motions of playing her role; I got the impression that Hathaway didn't really want to be in this film all that much because her performance was so lackluster. Matt Lucas, who played Tweedledee and Tweedledum, were just annoying side roles in this film; Lucas has a voice that works well for the Tweedles but really grates on your ears after a while. Geraldine James and Joanna Bobin, who played Lady Ascot and Alexandra respectively, felt like weak supporting antagonists to Bill's great performance; a pair of very weak and forgettable talents. Andrew Scott, who played Dr. Addison Bennett, was a minor role that the film didn't really need; this quick return to the 'real world' felt jarring and this was mainly due to the appearance of Scott. Richard Armitage, who played who played King Oleron, was a surprising and unnecessary minor role; if Oleron was going to be used as a character at all then they should have had him in more scenes. Ed Speleers, who played James Harcourt, barely had any lines in this film and yet was given far too much screen time; his support for Alice was very sweet but also felt very forced. Alan Rickman, who voiced Absolem, had very little impact on this film as a whole; this is an exceptionally disappointing film for Rickman's last feature. Paul Whitehouse, who voiced Thackery, pushes the limits on how absurd this film can get; ultimately Whitehouse has a voice that can wear a bit thin after listening to it for too long. Stephen Fry, who voiced Cheshire Cat, was one of my favourite performances from the first film but was grossly underused in this film; he had no impact on the story and only fleetingly appeared in scenes. Barbara Windsor, who voiced Mallymkun, was quite a strong performance from the first film but is almost forgotten about this time round; Windsor is lucky if she's given even an echo of some of the strong lines she had from the first film. Matt Vogel, who voiced Wilkins, is easily the weakest voice actor for this entire film; I can't stress enough how annoying his character was just due to Vogel's voicework. Hattie Morahan, who played Queen Elsemere, never really connected with the young actresses who played her daughters; Morahan gives quite a stereotypical performance of a motherly character. Amelia Crouch, who played Young Mirana, is quite a terrible child actress; her line delivery is shockingly bad.