Review of “Alice Through the Looking Glass”

A little less charming than the first one. A little less cohesive, too. A little less everything, including fun.

Pros:
-Sacha Baron Cohen’s Time is a great character
-A funny tea time scene
-A fairly intense finale, surprisingly
-A bold take on the concept of time travel and affecting the future

Cons:
-Entirely worthless intro scene and reality subplot (especially the institution)
-Dialogue is hit or miss
-Mia Wasikowska gives a lackluster performance
-Plot is a bit too far-fetched and scattered, in retrospect
-CGI is way too cartoon-y
-Less thoughtful quirkiness overall
-It’s just not as Alice-y as the first one

Weird things:
-Anne Hathaway’s finger twiddling. Did the director ask her to do this or, just, why?

Basically, here’s the thing. If you took away the soundtrack, I wouldn’t have had fun watching the movie. But with the score it’s a fun music video with an okay story attached. If you loved the first one, you’ll find stuff to like here. It’s a fun waltz but hardly anything I’d consider memorable.