The prospect of a sequel to Alice in Wonderland has always been an intriguing decision by Disney because there was nothing about it that screamed out "sequel" other than its alarmingly-high box office. Yes, believe it or not, but the first film, released in 2010, managed to break into the $1bn club despite having an unknown lead actress and a plot that, whilst based on a timeless classic, was sucked away from its original beauty to a generic destiny story with iffy performances and CGI across the board. And yet it worked for audiences, and with a substantial fanbase online, two years later came the announcement for this very sequel – now headlined by James Bobbin, the man who helped bring the Muppets back into the public awareness with their 2012 and 2014 outings, and former director Tim Burton seated in a producing role – and we're now brought here...where it's received similarly mixed results, thanks mostly to its release being untimely mixed in with the onslaught of news stories based around Johnny Depp. Having a plot based around the survival of a character whose actor isn't exactly being painted in a positive fashion is never a good sign, and with the Disney live action fare being more miss than hit (only The Jungle Book has managed to strive with critics and audiences), is this sequel just a case of bad timing?
Set an unknown number of years later, and Alice (Mia Wasikowska) has made it her duty to be the captain of her father's old ship, and embarking on numerous journeys across the world for the sake of trading products. Upon the return to the homeland she expects to be greeted with open arms, but instead is hit by the news that her mother (Lindsey Duncan) intends on selling the boat to former suitor Hamish Ascot (Leo Bill), and as such this spurs her back to the level of sanity which Underland introduces her to – brought towards the titular Looking Glass by Absolem (the late Alan Rickman). Upon her return, she's greeted with equally terrible news: the Hatter (Johnny Depp) has sunk into a much deeper level of insanity, determined to believe that his family is in fact still alive despite prior information about them dying on the day of the Jabberwocky attack. With Alice being the only one not to have existed in time gone by, she's enforced to use a device known as the Chronosphere to go back in time and rescue the Hatter's family – a factor much more difficult to come by due to the nature of Time (Sacha Baron Cohen) being adamant to hand over the very source of his power and the fact that the ever-mardy Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) is there to witness Alice's return.
Creating a story for a sequel that no one really wants outside of the studio is always going to be a difficult one, but by branching out to time travel and basing its entire arc around a character who was somewhat unbearable before doesn't exactly lend to some high-quality storytelling. If anything, it's the movie equivalent of jumping the shark (nuking the fridge, maybe?). But that doesn't stop the film from being at all entertaining, as its time-centric tale is in actuality a little more interesting than the trailers would tell. Riddled by story faux pas perhaps, and with a section of the movie being dedicated to Alice back in the real world that serves as nothing else but time-killing (a great pity for Andrew Scott's acting talent to be wasted for that) but arguably more cohesive and enjoyable than the original Alice was six years prior.
And it could perhaps be noted that the visuals look a little better now that Underland doesn't consist of a dystopian forest landscape. The splash of colour everywhere makes the film look so much more appealing, and whilst the CGI looks perhaps worse than it did before it does still open itself up for some interesting designs and worlds - with the chronosphere's transport vehicle looking similar to that of the bikes from Men in Black 3 and Time's lair suitably being a gigantic clock. And while director James Bobbin is better known for directing felt puppets rather than computer puppets, he seems to have captured a grasp for it okay enough that nothing looks too terrible; even if some elements can be a little shoddy at moments.
Mia Wasikowska returns as the titular Alice with much of the same whimsy as before, upgraded slightly due to how more feminist she comes across as against the male-dominated world which she unfortunately resides in. Her travels in time, however, do come across as more selfish than anything - not helped by the factor that Time actually runs on the power she uses to travel – as she deviates from the original plan to try and stop the Red Queen from ever being evil, and later the moral of the story being semi-forcible explained to the audience as the film draws to a close does suggest a slight dim-wittedness despite how clever a character she's initially introduced as in this very film. Johnny Depp as the Hatter remains as insane and incoherent as before, with the very essence of his character being used as a plot point barely functioning any more than as a reason for Alice to even go on this journey that in the end doesn't exactly require time travel; Helena Bonham Carter seems shoe-horned into the movie for the sake of having an antagonist and raised stakes for the film's final act; sister Anne Hathaway is just as goofy as she was before, except here with a bit more screen presence; Sacha Baron Cohen makes for a fine Time but is hindered by his need to use a disappearing-reappearing accent; the returning voice cast do as fine a job as they can in their limited moments; Rhys Ifans as the Hatter's father is just a standard father figure that brings to mind a cheerier Christopher Lee from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; and finally Lindsey Duncan makes for an extended but iffy return as Alice's mother.
If Alice in Wonderland's duty as a film was to create a darker, gritty iteration of the classic Lewis Carroll tale, it's Alice Through the Looking Glass's duty to ensure that the characters still gave a Disney fairy tale happy ending for a number of its characters. Injecting some of the fun back to the story but being based entirely on a flimsy story, Alice 2 is perhaps not as bad as most would assume from a film as unnecessary as this one but is still flawed in its overall presence; all set dressing and no proper content. 5/10.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand has always been quite a peculiar one when it comes to the movies. The 90s original was once upon a time one of the biggest independent movies ever released, and its first sequel harbouring some form of cult fanbase; its 2007 animated effort, titled simply TMNT, was a minor success but one that has long-since been forgotten; and the 2014 reboot was such a shambles during its production process that even the studio was surprised by the factor that it opened so massively – knocking Guardians of the Galaxy from its #1 spot in America in its second weekend, which was unprecedented by that point – that it greenlit a sequel once the numbers had started rolling in. Not that the first film was quite so loved, what with the obvious Michael Bay influences being evident despite being directed by someone other than the controversial Transformers auteur, as it was riddled with plot holes, poor performances and incredibly garish character designs for the once simple-looking heroes. But in comes in said sequel to try and win over the fans once again, with the promise of some of the brand's most popular and iconic characters making their big-screen debuts and an actual sense of fun being returned to the franchise. But remember – through and through, this is still technically a Michael Bay film...
A year on from the events of the first film, and despite the big fuss created by Shredder's (now played by Brian Tee) plan the Turtles are still in hiding from civilisation; passing over credit for the Foot Clan's defeat and their leader's subsequent arrest over to ally Vern (Will Arnett). This doesn't sit right with child of the group Michelangelo (Noel Fisher), who's started to crave the normal life. But it appears that the potential for such may be on the horizon when Shredder's escape from police captivity – done so with the assistance of Dr. Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry) – leads to not only a quest to stop the duo from capturing the ingredients for a wormhole generator, but also the creation of fan-favourite henchmen Bebop and Rocksteady (played by Gary Anthony Williams and Stephen Farrelly respectively) promising that there may finally be a fair fight between the heroes in a half-shell and the villainous ninja group. Add some new-found help in the form of former policeman Casey Jones (Stephen Amell) and his rocky relationship with the NYPD (namely Laura Linney's Rebecca Vincent), and the Turtles may be faced with their toughest challenge yet...
A phrase often kicked around with comic book movies is that having too many villains can cause some major setbacks for the rest of the film, and that may very well be the case here. Not only is there the main man Shredder (who doesn't do any shredding), but you get the two bumbling morons that resemble a rhino and a warthog, Perry's overly excitable doctor, and a main bad guy in the form of the alien Krang (voiced by Brad Garrett) not to mention the brief sorta-baddie Linney. Perhaps because of all these elements, mixed together with the standard Turtles storyline in which the group breaks apart thanks to Raphael and Leonardo (Alan Ritchson and Pete Ploszek) and Casey's own mini-plotline does make the film feel like a bit of a mess in its story department. Granted, the whole thing comes across as being better than the previous attempt thanks to the more comedic interjections made by Mikey (though nothing that makes you actually laugh) and a certain referential feel to it – which ranges from an Arrested Development gag to Vanilla Ice playing in a bar – but that doesn't stop a story that's riddled by the standard plotholes and excitingly dull action beats from taking place on the same level. It's like a mesh of the first film, the final act of any Avengers-like movie from the past few years, and any Transformers movie.
And whilst the character designs on the Turtles have been altered slightly to look less like Shrek on super steroids, they still look rather ill-suited to whatever surroundings they're in – not helped by a single scene where one of the Turtles comes face-to-face with a tortoise. Add the weird realisations of Bebop and Rocksteady and indeed Krang, and you have a film which does very little to sell these cartoon characters in a realistic light like it wants to. The direction by Dave Green is quite flat too, bar those moments of 3D pandering, and the whole thing just looks like it was designed on a computer despite the very human elements that are interlaced across it... not that it's younger target demographic are going to really care about.
The four Turtles are still somewhat likeable though, and that's all that really matters for the film to not fail. Noel Fisher's Mikey is family-friendly enough whilst still having some form of heart that he makes the emotional backbone that this film so desperately craves; Pete Ploszek as Leo is the caring but diligent big brother type; Alan Ritchson's Raph is the argumentative punch-thrower who can still work in a team when the situation calls for it; and Jeremy Howard's Donatello (arguably the MVP of the bunch) is the nerd who has some form of actual character hidden within his calculations. Perhaps unbearable if we're stuck with them for too long, but tolerable enough to follow on their adventures. Megan Fox's April O'Neil is perhaps more unbearable, thanks largely to Fox's inability to act properly or make a face other than conceded, and has no real purpose other than to introduce Amell (who starts off rather iffy and maddening but you warm to over time) to the mix , while Arnett's limited role as literal key master leaves you only wishing for that LEGO Batman Movie to come sooner rather than later. Linney's limited supporting role is as basic as one would expect from the trailers, and the various celebrity cameos can get aggravating over time, but it's the bad guys that have the hardest time. Williams and Farrelly's one-note characters can get quite annoying if on-screen for too long in either human or animal guises; Brian Tee is given little to do despite being the Turtles' most formidable foe; Perry is a straight-up caricature; and Krang is absent for about an hour of the movie until he's needed for the big finale.
The best thing that can be said about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is that it's a superior movie to its predecessor. Its lighter tone and increased referential humour add some much-needed levity to the franchise, and the product placements are a little more bearable, but what really tops it off is the factor that these Turtles actually come across as tolerable enough for non-fans of the franchise. Whilst this doesn't overlook the film's dull nature or some of the awful characters this world is residence to, it does mean that the film did achieve at least something right. It's fine enough for its audience of young fans, but it's still just the shell of the brand's true glory. 4/10.
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