Through the Looking Glass Review

Seeing as it’s been over two months since my last post, I feel obliged to write this review today. After copious amounts of coffee and twenty scribbled pages of notes – all of which are now scrunched into the bin – I finally feel ready to begin to write.

So, here it is, at long last a review of the rather poor Alice in Wonderland sequel, Through the Looking Glass.

Now, it wasn't until doing some research on this film that I noticed Tim Burton was not the director. To be honest, when I was watching it, I felt as though this was a cheap knock-off of one of his films, so am glad to know that he hasn't sold out. I wasn't a huge fan of the monstrosity of the first film, but at least it was visually pleasing – unlike this one!

On top of this, I absolutely hated the Vegetable people. They were stupid and immature, and I am pretty sure they are only featured to get an easy laugh from the kids in the audience. I know that I am not the target age group for a Disney film, seeing as I am 19, but even so, I felt that this film had some overly immature and poorly thought through parts.

As for plot; nothing really happened. I was sat watching this film for an hour and a half, and the plot quality and quantity didn't feel that way. There was an amazing opportunity to end the film on a very dark, unpredictable note; however, a happy ending was favoured, which was highly disappointing. The whole film was largely made up of overly long, repetitive scenes, and when there were amazing scenes, such as when Alice is in the Mental Asylum, they appear to be cut short.

I know I may seem a bit biased when it comes to the Mental Asylum scene, due to my undying love for all things Andrew Scott; however, I genuinely thought that this scene should have been longer. It was such a dark, clever twist, which heavily juxtaposed with the surrealism of Wonderland. This was the only scene that felt very Burton-ish to me, and I really wish that it was prolonged.

On top of this, Andrew Scott was just fantastic (like seriously, his psycho eyes turn me to jelly), as were the rest of the cast. Depp’s depiction of a young hatter was superb, as was Baron-Cohens’ take on Time. It’s just a shame that such talents were wasted on such a poor films.

CGI is also very big in this film, seeing as all of the wonders of Wonderland are reliant in the post-production stage. You can therefore imagine my shock when one scene in particular, of Alice running through fire, looked like it was made in the prehistoric age! I hadn't seen such bad CGI in a long time, and it was emphasised due to the quality of the rest of the film. If you see Through the Looking Glass, you’ll know the scene I'm talking about, as it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Overall, in case you couldn't already tell, I was beyond disappointed with this film. With such as all-star cast and technological advances, it really should have been better than it was, and this is being said by someone who hates to criticize. I felt like it had the potential to be a new dark and twisted look into Wonderland, that could even better the first one, but it really let itself down.

But, to end on a positive, the ‘Time’ puns at the Tea Party table were pure gold, and I would probably watch the film again for those alone (and for Andrew Scott, of course).