Review of Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) by Foxgrove — 04 Jun 2016

Following the major disappointment that was Tim Burton’s 2010 ‘Alice in Wonderland’ it is good to report that ‘Through the Looking Glass’ is a definite improvement. Although darker in both tone and look, director James Bobin has the advantage of making the film more interesting by virtue of a better story to tell.

By balancing this positive against the obvious visual splendours enables all the elements to come together very satisfactorily. It goes without saying that his achievement here is of a considerably higher standard than Burton managed.

That is not to say that the film doesn’t have its irritations. A little of the cutesy characters, Alice’s friends, go a long way and the transformer type robots are equally irksome. These quibbles aside however, the film is actually quite delightful.

As Alice Mia Wasikowska has made great strides in the role and invests the character with much more colour this time around. Helena Bonham Carter is again good value as The Red Queen tossing off the odd funny line with consummate ease.

Sacha Baron Cohen is a welcome new addition as Time Itself and Johnny Depp is far more palatable here as the hatter than he was in the previous film. Only Anne Hathaway’s bland depiction of the White Queen remains steadfastly disappointing.

There is nothing, though, disappointing about the visual experience that the film undoubtedly is. Colleen Attwood’s costumes are again amazing and the make-up seamlessly duplicates the standard already set by the earlier film.

Art Direction is stunningly imaginative and the visual effects are wonderful if you forgive the odd wobble here and there during the time travel sequences on the chronosphere. Overall, ‘Through the Looking Glass’ does at least raise the low bar set by its flatly conceived predecessor even if there is still room for improvement.