Alice Through the Looking Glass

[carolinakid]

Mouse Planet says it sucks.

[Mooky]

I saw it... It wasn't as bad as the first one (or maybe my expectations were lowered), but it wasn't good either. Unlike most time travel movies this one didn't play much with the whole concept of it, which made the whole movie quite dull at times. But mostly, it was just kind of pointless and didn't bring anything new to the table. I did like the Red Queen's backstory and Time was an interesting character. I gave it 5/10, whereas I gave 4/10 to AiW.

[stevemcqueen]

Spotted two different release dates:
1) September 27th, 2016
2) October 18th, 2016

For all we know they might be waiting to see how well this does theatrically. The better it does, the October date would seem more likely.

UPC: 786936850888
Format: Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD

No 3D release in sight.

[kbehm29]

I REALLY hope these allegations against Johnny Depp today doesn't affect the movie's opening weekend at all. Such bad timing for accusing him of domestic abuse (nothing has been proven at this point so I'm not going to comment on my opinion). I wonder how this will factor into his relationship with Disney?

[D82]

Another pair of clips:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrKQBd6x7a8[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTWb7zwqfZ8[/youtube]

[Semaj]

With any luck, I may be sitting this one out.

[DisneyFan09]

I saw it today. I'm one of the minority who actually liked the predecessor. Despite not going completely gaga for it, I thought it was a well-made and quite good film, actually. This follower isn't bad, but still inferior and not particularly memorable. All the criticisms which the first film was accused for served this one; It was simply bland and generic at some places. The juvenile comedy was forced and awkward. Mia Wazikowska never shined in the former film, but was even more bland and dull in this one. The film really suffered the fate which applies to sequels; Rehash/not knowing what to do with the skimpy plot nor the animal characters. Hatter was grating at times. And the town actually seemed to be taken from the kingdom in Tangled.

However, it's not as this film is a complete dud. Just generic and forgettable. And I saw no teaser for Moana in my viewing.

[Mickeyfan1990]

I'm sad to hear that this film is failing. I was hoping at it would be at least 60% of a critical success.

But I'm happy to hear DisneyFan09 likes it.

[DisneyFan09]

Sorry, Mickeyfan1990. I somewhat liked it, yet I thought it was meh at places. It was definitively hampered by the aforementioned flaws, but it wasn't completely horrible. I considered the predecessor to be superior.

[Musical Master]

Seeing it tomorrow night, I have a few friends who have seen it already and they did HATE the first movie and liked the sequel much better. One of them jokingly told me that "critics are high as a kite for hating this obvious improvement".

[Tangled]

Is anyone surprised that X-Men seems to be beating this into the ground? Because I sure am not.

I feel like the success of the first one was partially due to it being a 3D, CGI-filled fantasy film released a few months after Avatar. Now, 3D is less of a draw than it was back then. Plus, all the controversy surrounding Johnny Depp and his divorce is not going to do Disney any favors. Still, even though I didn't like the writing in the first film, I didn't want the sequel to do poorly. They're still well-made movies, and everything I've heard about the sequel sounds like an improvement from the first film (aside from the lack of the flutter wacken ).

[D82]

Is anyone surprised that X-Men seems to be beating this into the ground? Because I sure am not.

I feel like the success of the first one was partially due to it being a 3D, CGI-filled fantasy film released a few months after Avatar. Now, 3D is less of a draw than it was back then. Plus, all the controversy surrounding Johnny Depp and his divorce is not going to do Disney any favors, since even though I didn't like the writing in the first film, I didn't want the sequel to do poorly. They're still well-made movies, and everything I've heard about the sequel sounds like an improvement from the first film (aside from the lack of the flutter wacken ).

Alice Through the Looking Glass earned just $28 million over the weekend and is expected to take in $35 million over the four-day holiday. That’s worse than predicted. I knew the sequel wouldn’t be as successful as the first film for the first reason you mentioned and also because most people seemed to be disappointed with the first film, but I didn’t expect it to do so badly either. The poor reviews may have affected the film too.

[kbehm29]

I saw it tonight. This movie suffers from the same misfortune that Prince Caspian and John Carter did....an above average+ movie that was very poorly marketed and released at a horrible time.
Depp reminded me of his exact performance as Willy Wonka, it got annoying fast. I was irked that much of the plot had nothing to do with the actual book until I remembered a lot of it was already covered in the previous movie. Storyline was not boring....it worked and had some interesting twists. I liked all the backstories. The ending was great. Visuals outstanding. I would recommend and will likely buy it on Blu-Ray.

[Disney's Divinity]

I'm not really surprised it's doing worse financially, because the cat's out of the bag for this. Everyone who hated the first one knows ahead of time and can sit it out. I imagine it'll still be a moderate success, maybe hit Cinderella numbers.

[Musical Master]

After watching it tonight, I feel it is unfairly maligned by critics just because it's not "faithful" to Lewis Carroll's books. I really enjoyed this one, given to how horridly boring and mediocre the first one was, I was quite surprised at how entertaining and thrilling it was once I lowered expectations. Hiring James Bobin was a smart decision that really helped the movie from being another cliched mess again.

WARNING OF SPOILERS!

Alice is a much better character here than she was in the first movie by becoming more assertive and not being this walking, talking tool she was in the first by being the MAIN character this time around. Loved the moment when she realized what she did wrong and was willing to fix everything by getting the Chronosphere back to the Grand Clock and the ending where she and Time have a well written chat about her valuing how precious time itself really is and letting go of the past.

Alongside Maleficent, to me this is Linda Woolverton's most interesting screenplay so far with the improved story and details the movie contains and giving us the best freaking climax in any of Disney's recent live-action movies with time falling apart when the Red Queen screamed at the younger White Queen for being a lair and a cataclysmic event happens when she and the younger version of herself freeze and the time rust spreads throughout the universe of Underland. There was actually stakes here and the story here was a 1,000 times more interesting compared to the boring and awfully cliched "destiny, prophecy and hero journey" story that Linda wrote in the first film. I do like the fact that it does have more strong emotional moments in it which was disgustingly lacking in the first movie and the valuable lessons to take away from like "accept the past for what it is and cherish the time you have before it's gone".

Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, is thankfully in small doses compared to how he and his character overtook the first movie and is not bad here which I could guess is James Bobin's direction, which in my opinion, helped. The stuff with him and his father was nice but I will say that I wish it got more time to develop. But the moment that Zanik saved the paper hat and kept it was rather touching and sweet as if he felt bad that he ruined it.

One of the two most best parts of the movie is the scenes which involved Time himself. Time is a well developed character of being a immortal creation that only wanted to do his job alone and when Alice steals the Chronosphere he tries to both warn her of the consequences of meddling with time and trying to stop her, making him a rather interesting "anti-villain" in a sense. His wisdom and his warmness he shared with Alice at the end was well done and quite touching with Sacha Baron Cohen's performance being as funny and slightly complex as it turned out to be. I never expected that to happen at all, especially that Linda Woolverton is somewhat known to downplay male characters as either evil or servants to the female characters (I'm looking at you Maleficent!).

The second best part is the well written expansion of both the Red and White Queens. Giving them more time to develop as characters and the sisterly relationship they once had. But when they were children, Mirana lied about eating the tarts and Iracebeth running away in sadness which Alice inadvertently caused her to trip and ram her head into the statue of her father, causing her head to swell up and carries a deep hatred for her younger sister until the ending where Mirana apologized for everything she did to her which did cause me to tear up a little. It is strongly implied that they will start over again and repair the relationship which was nice to see.

Speaking of the ending, from the way it was written and directed, it seems that Alice will never see Underland ever again which does break her heart a little but the Hatter explains that she will see them again in her dreams which she sadly says: "But a dream is not reality." with the Hatter replying "Who's to say which is which". This movie may be the last film due to their goodbye with Alice and her mother making up and creating their own company in Hong-Kong called "Kingsleigh and Kingsleigh" in remembrance of Charles Kingsleigh.

There are indeed some issues to be had but it boils down to slight continuity errors, pacing issues, and the fact that the other characters do sacrifice the screen-time for Alice, Time, The Queens, and the Hatter. What they once had in the first movie, now have to be incidental characters that only function as the "main group" that "helps" Alice. Though the scene where we see them as kids was absolutely precious by they way. The big one I wished was that Absolem the Blue Butterfly had more to do than being the first one Alice sees when she heads back to Underland and never shows up in the movie ever again when she falls from the door, sad given the fact that it was Alan Rickman's last role before his passing.

Other than that. I think the movie is a quite wonderful sequel in it's own way by righting the mediocre wrongs of the first by being a feel good, fun, fantasy adventure. I highly do recommend this to people who do want to see the movie but are not sure about it.

I give this a 8 out of 10.

[Prince Edward]

I thought it was better than the original. It will not go down in history as a classic movie, but it was great fun and really entertaining. Beautiful to look at, great visuals and costumes, I liked the music. The story was more entertaining than the first movie in my opinion. Will watch it in theaters again and buy it on 3D Blu-ray.

I hope the movie will be a success outside the US, I would hate for it to totally bomb and maybe affect the upcoming Disney "live action fairytales". I do want live action Aladdin, The Little Mermaid etc^^ I guess a box office around the level of Cinderella (543 millions Worldwide) might be achievable, and if it were to come close to 500 millions it can't really be seen as a flop. A let down compared to the 1 billion the first movie earned, but still a successfull box office earning.

Stupid of Disney to release this at the same day as X-Men. They should have given it a March release like the original and it would have gone much better I suspect. It's to crowded at the Summer box office.

[Musical Master]

I thought it was better than the original. It will not go down in history as a classic movie, but it was great fun and really entertaining. Beautiful to look at, great visuals and costumes, I liked the music. The story was more entertaining than the first movie in my opinion. Will watch it in theaters again and buy it on 3D Blu-ray.

I hope the movie will be a success outside the US, I would hate for it to totally bomb and maybee affect the upcoming Disney live action "fairytales". I do want live action Aladdin, The Little Mermaid etc^^ I guess a box office around the level of Cinderella (543 millions Worldwide) might be achievable, and if it were to come close to 500 millions it can't really be seen as a flop. A let down compared to the 1 billion the first movie earned, but still a successfull box office earning.

Stupid of Disney to release this at the same day as X-Men. They should have given it a March release like the original and it would have gone much better I suspect. It's to crowded at the Summer box office.

I agree Prince Edward, even if the movie will be a disappointment in the North American box-office, it will make it's 175 million back in worldwide totals. BTW what was your favorite part of the movie? Mine was the entire ending of the movie from the time rust spreading throughout Underland's universe to Alice and her mother creating their own shipping company.

[Musical Master]

Here's an interview that Yahoo did for Linda Woolverton who gives a little bit of interesting info about her work on Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/groundbrea ... 24164.html

[kbehm29]

I'm writing again because I can't get this movie off my mind, partially because I feel it's being unfairly ruled out by a lot of people who might actually like it if they give it a chance. Although a "sequel", this movie uses Lewis Carroll's characters and comes up with an original plot with them. Some of my favorite parts of the movie:
How it jumps between the real world and Underland, sometimes having multiple storylines going on in Underland at the same time!; and

Was it "time rust" at the end? My 11 year old son thought it was dried up roses and thorns.; and

The whole ending was done so nicely, and I love the message the movie delivers overall.

[DisneyFan09]

I saw it tonight. This movie suffers from the same misfortune that Prince Caspian and John Carter did....an above average+ movie that was very poorly marketed and released at a horrible time.

At least Prince Caspian (for all it's faults) were a better movie than the generic and bland John Carter.