Alice through the looking glass blu ray review

Every year we see a few potential blockbusters that bomb in theaters. 2016 has been extremely unforgiving, leaving behind many casualties. ‘Warcraft’ cost $160 million but only made $47 million domestically, and was only saved by its international box office. ‘Independence Day Resurgence’ made $103 million and cost $165 million, and we also have ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Out of the Shadows’ which made $82 million but cost $135 million to make. Then we have ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass,’ which made $77 million domestically and cost a staggering $170 million, making this film one of the most spectacular failures of the summer. To put this into perspective, Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ made $334 million and cost $200 million to produce. In fact, there wasn't even a whole lot of promotional material for this film. Very few franchises fall so far and so fast, which begs the question, what went wrong?

To me, a big reason this movie doesn't quite work can be boiled down to the fact that Tim Burton isn't at the helm here. I didn't necessarily like the 2010 remake, but Burton did have a vision. With this movie we have James Bobin (The Muppets (2011), Muppets Most Wanted) and it is apparent that he is ill-equipped to give a proper sequel that is the same in tone and mood. 

Right from frame one we get a huge juxtaposition that feels tonally off. We start out with Alice (Mia Wasikowska) as a captain of a boat in a huge storm on her way back from an exploring expedition. Alice has taken control of her father’s ship after his death and the investors of her expeditions all pull her funding, and threaten to seize control of her mother’s house if she doesn’t hand over the deed for the boat.  This is the worst part about the film and once we get into Wonderland the childishness continues, but it is at least visually striking.

Wonderland is just as bright, vibrant, and full of life as you would remember. In fact, I would make the argument that there is more character in Wonderland than any of the actual actors and actresses on screen. Wasikowska doesn’t seem to fit in the role that has been given to her, and Anne Hathaway as Mirana is terribly one note and expressionless. Johnny Depp, on the other hand, has the opposite effect. Depp reprises his role as the Mad Hatter, and if his shtick grated on you like it grated on me the last time around, then look out, because he is even more bombastic and garish than last time. That may be because a big part of ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ centers around reuniting the Hatter with his recently deceased family. Now, Depp has rightfully been accused of being a caricature and not a character for a long time and that is in full effect here, and unfortunately, it is detrimental to the film.  

Since Alice was last here, everyone in Wonderland seems to be crushing over the Hatter for some reason and it seems like Wonderland can’t function without him. So Alice must travel to the Time Castle and steal the “Chronosphere” from a character simply known as Time (Sacha Baron Cohen) to travel back in time and save Hatter’s family before their demise. I love and admire every visual in the Time Castle and all of the character it brings.  Cohen's quirks and liveliness fit wonderfully within this universe and he instantly became my favorite character in the film. The Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) also has a subplot as she tries to coerce Time to give her the Chronosphere for nefarious reasons. We then also get an interesting, but rather unnecessary, look at her past and why she is so evil.

Why did ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ perform so poorly at the box office? It’s not because this film has little to nothing to do with its source material.  This is an obvious Disnification of this property, which was evident even from the small amount of press material that was released. This is a totally kidified version of what we got in Burton’s vision.  You are asked to swallow such pandering messages, Stereotypical characters, and uninspired plotting that it becomes too much to bear. Visuals do count for a lot here, and carry the movie most of the way to the finish line. But it is glaringly apparent that this concept was left in development for way too long with too many cooks spoiling the broth; and like a steak left in the oven too long, it is full of leather and too chewy to swallow.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats:

‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ comes to Blu-ray with a Disney/Buena Vista standard glossy slip cover to hard cover package that encloses a BD-50 disc, DVD, and Digital HD code. Once you hit play, we get the usual skippable trailers that let you go straight to the film, or go to the main menu that has clips from the film playing in the background

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