Alice Through the Looking Glass

Dir: James Bobin

2016

*

I took great umbrage to Tim Burton's 2010 Alice in Wonderland and the many changes to the original story that he made, but at least there were some (at least a few) elements worthy of applause. The same cannot be said of this horrible sequel and adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice through the Looking Glass. I was happily intrigued when I heard that James Bobin was going to direct it in Burton's absence but I have to say I like his work with puppets far more than his venture into sickening blue-screen CGI. Unlike the original that largely took place on a giant Chess board, the central story here is that The Mad Hatter has become dangerously depressed since Alice last visited Underland. The Mad Hatter was not the central or even one of the more important characters of either book but because he is played by Johnny Depp, he's now somehow integral to the rewrite. No one involved in this production really cared about Lewis Carroll's classic fantasy, to suggest they were trying something new with a story that has been adapted for the screen many times before is lazy talk, the truth is that this is entirely about money. The first film made a profit and because there is a follow up book, the opportunity to make more money was there. A real passionate film maker and fan of the story would have seen it as a challenge, rather than complete rewritten it, keeping the characters only but not necessarily their original character traits. Pretty much every actor from the first film returned and the one thing I will say is that the character of time (played by Sasha Baron Cohen) was interesting, but it is such an awful shame that they didn't make an honest adaption of the original story, especially as there are so many versions of the first one but hardly any of Through the Looking Glass. To concentrate on just one character is ridiculous, especially as Johnny Depp isn't even that great in the role. They could have least included the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) and Absolem (voiced by Alan Rickman in his last performance), who is now a butterfly rather than a caterpillar. The first film was a million miles away from Lewis Carroll, the sequel is a million miles further away than that. I'm sure the effects are very difficult to produce, were made by the best in the business and cost a lot of money but none of it looked good and, much like the story, showed no creativity or that even any effort had been made. Visually, it did all the things that people complained about almost twenty years ago and yet they seem quite content with what they've produced. It's a sad excuse of film making, colour, movement, formula and familiarity but nothing of any real substance, no creativity or rising to the really challenge of staying faithful to the highly regarded and much loved classic. It bombed at the box office and I'm glad because it's more than all concerned deserved.