Before you contemplate going to see this Tim Burton-less sequel to Alice In Wonderland ask yourself this: How do you feel about the Mad Hatter? Are you enamoured with his antics? Would you be devastated if he was ill? Because your feelings towards Lewis Carroll's legendary loon will determine your levels of engagement with this sequel. If you care not a jot for him then Alice Through The Looking Glass has as much an emotional whack as a sandwich.
Things have changed for Alice (Wasikowska) since her previous adventure. She's a sea captain, evading pirates by guiding her father's ship through the straits of Malacca. Back home though, former suitor Hamish (Leo Bill) demands she sign over the ship to her and an upset Alice escapes the nightmare by passing through a mirror that brings her back to Underland. It’s here that White Queen (Hathaway), White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) and the rest have destressing news: Hatter (Depp) is dying of a broken heart because he fears his family are dead. He needs Alice to find them by locating the Chronosphere, a time-travelling device that’s located deep in Time's (Cohen) impressive clockwork cathedral. Alice must go back in time to find out what exactly happened to Hatter's father (Rhys Ifans) and his family and save Hatter from death's door…
With Burton's Alice nicking a lot from Carroll's sequel and Jabberwocky, returning screenwriter Linda Woolverton (Maleficent) doesn't have a lot to work with, largely abandoning Carroll for a completely new adventure. She drums up a busy thing with Alice forced through a series of trials with tunnels to crawl through, chasms to leap, and puzzles to solve in action sequences that resemble Wipeout-meets-Gladiators obstacles. Director James Bobin's (The Muppets) visuals retain Burton's psychedelic palette with all sorts of bright and colourful creatures running amok; Time's cavernous cathedral is a real standout.
But there's a real disconnect between the audience and the madcap antics on the screen and kids might struggle to digest it all. As Alice slips back and forward in time, needlessly piecing together why the Red Queen (Carter) has a big head and is at odds with her goody two shoes sister, the mission gets forgotten about. And despite various characters pop up with helpful exposition, reminding us what is happening, why it's happening, and what's going to happen, there still is a real danger the kids won't have a badger's what's going on. They probably won't care either.
Helena Bonham Carter was far and away the best thing about the first outing but, maddeningly, she's in a reduced role here. Cohen does what he can to fill the void as the villain but his utterances in a German accent, like the time gags aimed in his direction, soon tire.