ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS  3.0***

  This is a sequel to the 2010 “Alice in Wonderland".  It is a fun, delightful movie with absolutely gorgeous colors and imagery and a goofy time travel tale. Mia Wasikowska reprises her role as  Alice and does an even better  job here  as the curious and friendly girl  hoping to save her fantasy world from the trappings of time. Johnny Depp returns as the Mad Hatter and his costumes and makeup are even more  spectacular. The story centers around the Mad Hatter's desire to reconnect with his family who were believed burnt up by the Jabberwocky, a dragon ordered around by the Red Queen. Also returning  is Helen Bonham Carter as the big-headed Red Queen with a bad attitude and a pension for chopping off the heads of those whom she doesn’t like.. Anne Hathaway is back as the “good” White Queen. A new addition is Sacha Baron Cohen  as TIME and his costume, his robotic helpers and the clock features are dazzling.

In order to prevent a heartbreaking end to her friend, Hatter, she turns to Time himself  (Sacha Cohen) for help. Despite his warnings about Alice not being able to win a race against time, and not being able to change the past, she borrows the Chronosphere, a time device that allows her to return to the past but not in an easy way… very bumpy and haphazard, but fun. As Alice witnesses the hits and misses, the ups and downs of friends (and enemies) during their lives in the past, she discovers  how it prompted them to their position in the present, and from this she may learn how to solve not only the problem with the Hatter, but her own back in London – but only if she can win the race against the ticking Chronosphere. 

"Through the Looking Glass” once more grabs hold of you and delivers you into the trippy imagination of Wonderland in glorious detail. Brilliant colors, twisted towers, and distorted scenery are all present in spectacular detail that immerses you into that magical world.  

As for negatives, the second half of the film is not nearly as developed as the opening and it felt a bit rushed. The Red Queen's threats felt a bit shallow at times and she was nowhere near as menacing as in the first ( you miss her powerful beasts). Which brings me to the final weakness. It is missing some of the magic and wonder that Tim Burton brought us in the 1^st one and  this makes the film duller .We have a lot of great things in this movie, but something about it feels off from Alice's other adventures. “Through The Looking Glass’ is missing the oddness and zaniness  its predecessor had. And with the lack of threats from rampaging beasts and a truly tyrannical queen, the story was less suspenseful .   

I still recommend seeing it on the BIG theater screen because of the sheer beauty of the film.