Alice Kinsleigh finds herself falling down the rabbit hole once more, in “Alice Through the Looking Glass”, the sequel to the 2010 original. Alice Kingsleigh (Wasikowska) has spent the past few years following in her father’s footsteps and sailing the high seas. Upon her return to London, she comes across a magical looking glass and returns to the fantastical realm of Underland and her friends the White Rabbit (Sheen), Absolem (Rickman), the Cheshire Cat (Fry) and the Mad Hatter (Depp), who is not himself. The Hatter has lost his Muchness, so Mirana (Hathaway) sends Alice on a quest to borrow the Chronosphere, a metallic globe inside the chamber of the Grand Clock which powers all time. Returning to the past, she comes across friends – and enemies – at different points in their lives, and embarks on a perilous race to save the Hatter before time runs out. We are also introduced to several new characters: Zanik Hightopp (Rhys Ifans), the Mad Hatter’s father and Time himself (Sacha Baron Cohen), a peculiar creature who is part human, part clock. “Alice Through the Looking Glass” is directed by James Bobin, and is rated PG for action/peril and some minor language.

“Alice Through the Looking Glass” has a strong moral message and an original concept for the Wonderland folklore, but can’t outweigh some of the negatives brought on by its suffocating direction and overdone CGI tones. At just shy of two hours, the film feels like two movies put together because we as an audience experience so much over the course of the script. When compared to the 2010 original, this isn’t exactly a sequel that was necessary, but it isn’t completely pointless either. There are some genuine good ideas with Linda Woolverton’s script. Tim Burton is noticeably missing from this sequel, and his dramatic layering in tones is certainly absent from the film’s finished product. Not a lot feels fun about this movie, and that led me to scratching my head as to who this film is marketed for. It’s almost a little too dark and slow paced for children to get much out of it, and it’s a little too silly for the adult crowd to react fondly. The film is just kind of left for dead during a week when it’s opening opposite of one of the Summer’s biggest blockbusters. What were the studios thinking? If they have no hope in it, why should we?

When dissecting this film, you should first look at the screenplay which i labeled as having “Creative A.D.D. The idea for time being a person, and the very layers of such a story was certainly more than enough to carry the movie out, but the film also has to throw as many as five different supporting stories to go with that premise. Things like the search for Hatter’s family, the Red Queen’s childhood, and Alice’s repeated mentioning of her real world troubles with trying to hold on to her father’s fading memories. All of these things hit off of one another and it doesn’t make for the smoothest of transitions from scene to scene. The film (like its younger audience) seems to have a problem sitting still, so we never really get to take in the consequences of each scene along the way to a third act that was actually quite satisfying. Two things are introduced into this film that really were never mentioned in Burton’s first film; Hatter’s family and the concept of time travel being a real thing in wonderland. My problem with this is that every conflict within this film and the first one feels a little easier when you can just go back in time and fix whatever problems plague our protagonists. It doesn’t make sense considering the White Queen is the one who mentions it to Alice in the first place. It’s really just impatience to stick with each scene, and as a result, most of the material fails to leave a lasting impression five minutes after we leave the theater.

What the script does get right is the message that the younger audience will leave the theater with. Two central ideas really gave this film a lot of heart, and it was nice to know that the film was at least trying when it came to the morals that it gave to its learning audience. Things like time being a gift, and how each and every one of us should cherish those minutes and seconds. To not treat time like a thief in the night, but instead like a blessing every day to the people we get to spend that time with. There’s also a strong push for the importance of how we can’t change the past; we can only learn from it. This is immensely important in a film revolving around second chances and the things we would do to make the problems in our own lives right.

Once again, the overall design of the film is very eye-appealing for fans who dug the look of the first movie. To me, I think the style direction is best during wide angle shots, when we don’t see as much of the CGI touches around actors who are clearly the only practical thing in each scene. It’s easy to point fingers at what is wrong with this concept of thinking, but the film does at least spare no expense when it comes to the computer generated effects that adorn the backdrops. This makes a fan of the practical effects like me a little more tolerable when it comes to a movie that I know simply isn’t there.

I want to talk a little bit about performances because the whole cast is back. Johnny Depp once again dons a wig and makeup for the legendary hatter, and while Depp doesn’t have a lot of scenes until the third act of the movie, he does make the most of his on-screen friendship with Alice. The chemistry of Depp and Wasikowska still certainly shines and feels like the closest thing to a father figure that Kingsleigh has in her life. Because of so many supporting characters in the film, roles like Anne Hathaway’s sadly fall through the cracks. There just isn’t enough for her or any of Alice’s wonderland friends (minus Hatter) to do in this film, so they just kind of serve as background checklists for the things the audience remembers about the first film. Helena Bonham Carter is decent enough in her performance, but I was quite surprised positive and negatively for the direction that the film gives her character. During the second act, we find out a lot about why she is the way she is, and it has to do with a troubling childhood because of how loved ones treated her. This is a refreshing take on the usually one-dimensional character, but it doesn’t fit right when they go back to trying to make her the menacing villain during the film’s closing minutes. I found myself actually rooting for her triumph, and that probably isn’t the intended direction for the screenplay of the film. One person who did steal the show however, was Sasha Baron Cohen. It’s really cool to see two of the greatest character actors going today in he and Depp, and Cohen makes the most of this opportunity. In Time, we get a powerful but heartfelt character who just wants the best for the land he runs. Cohen dazzles with so much emotional depth on screen, and he gives the film what little intrigue and charm that it has for most of the movie. I would’ve been cool with a movie just about his character, but nobody would see that, so I understand.

Overall, “Alice Through the Looking Glass” is a much better film than the original in my eyes, but it’s a little too late and a creative idea short to really catch enough wind in its directional sails. It’s mostly a journey that’s too artificial visually, too rushed narratively speaking, and only effective to the purest of Alice enthusiasts.

5/10