ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (C+/C+)

A clunky, time-travel tap-dance through Wonderland-past, Alice Through the Looking Glass is, surprisingly, not nearly as bad as you might expect…  Now before you take that as a ringing endorsement of quality, let’s pump the brakes – the narrative here moves at a neck-snapping, mile-a-minute pace,  so by the time you’ve deciphered Johnny Depp’s hard-to-understand, Mad Hatter, gap-toothed ‘lithp’, you’re back in the cinematic weeds playing catch-up with the hollowed-out and barely-there ‘thtory’.  Sorry…story.  I mean, there’s enough here to hang a hat on – but with the wafer-thin narrative now riding shotgun, the mind-bending visuals take the wheel for this ocularly impressive, two-hour long, fear and Loathing in Wonderland, acid road trip.  It’s an eccentrically inventive adventure with a whacked-out, A-list cast that’s game for all the eye-popping special effect curveballs thrown their way.  The movie is at once an engagingly convoluted and whimsically gaudy mess…just not in a way that makes it really bad.  In a single word, it’s bonkers.  Or better yet, take my 11-year old son’s reaction: ‘I liked it, but I have no idea what just happened.’  Most critics will force their predictably negative potion in the hopes you’ll skip it all together, but for those with even a remote interest in the material – your best bet is to respond with a simple, Lewis Carroll inspired quote: ‘Eat me!’

Starring: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen
Directed by: James Bobin (THE MUPPETS and MUPPETS MOST WANTED)
Rated: PG
Running time: 1hr. 48min.
Story: Alice travels back in time to save the Mad Hatter.
Website: www.movies.disney.com/alice-through-the-looking-glass