Alice Through the Looking Glass
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: May 27, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
34
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
19
Negative:
20
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 27, 2016
The only heartfelt moment of this movie for me came in the end credits, with its dedication to the late Alan Rickman, who provided the voice for the blue butterfly (and former caterpillar) Absolem. What a voice, what an actor, what a loss. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMay 10, 2016
For better or worse, Looking Glass loses none of the first film’s muchness, with Bobin mimicking both his predecessor’s wildly saturated style and his general disregard for plot and substance. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithMay 26, 2016
You certainly get your 20 bucks worth of spectacle out of Alice Through the Looking Glass. So breathtaking are the landscapes, so whimsical are the creatures, so marvelous are the marvels that I wanted to give a standing ovation to whoever signed the check to pay for all this. Expensiver and expensiver! Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 26, 2016
The whole business, this time, is passable eye candy without being any kind of brain candy. Read full review
60
CineVueMatthew AndersonMay 25, 2016
Alice Through The Looking Glass is at its middling best when Wasikowska is at the reins. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMay 24, 2016
The film’s pace barely leaves you time to think – blink and you’ll lose the plot. But there’s plenty of imagination here to honour the spirit of Carroll’s topsy-turvy tales, even if the emotional resolutions are of a distinctly twenty-first-century sort. Read full review
60
EmpireAndrew LowryMay 23, 2016
Wasikowska gives it her all, and Cohen shines, but while this is a better film than the first, that was a low bar to reach. Read full review
60
Total FilmNeil SmithMay 10, 2016
Bobin’s attempt to fill Tim Burton’s shoes generates a lively but ersatz sequel that only truly ticks when Baron Cohen and Bonham Carter are around. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerMay 24, 2016
It’s briskly paced and sometimes neat to watch in reality-bending 3-D, but none of it is quite as head-spinning as it should be. The movie doesn’t dare alienate its family base with genuine trippiness; instead, it pacifies with tedious familial backstory. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMay 26, 2016
Alice Through the Looking Glass isn’t without pleasures, but this empowerment-meets-fantasy mixture could have used a few more sprinklings of quirk. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 26, 2016
The script by Linda Woolverton stays surface faithful to the characters created by Lewis Carroll, but the film has lost its soul. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 25, 2016
Alice Through the Looking Glass, which has precious little to do with the rhyming collection Lewis Carroll penned with that title, is a dreary, joyless affair. Read full review
42
The Film StageDaniel SchindelMay 26, 2016
It’s not wretched; just boring. A faintly damned improvement, but an improvement nonetheless. Read full review
42
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerMay 25, 2016
It’s a classic case of sequel bloat, a film that seems to exist less because of any extended story it wants or needs to tell than because it must repackage something that was once popular. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 26, 2016
The good news is that Mia Wasikowska is back in the title role, bright-spirited and skillful as ever, but she’s burdened by the manic direction of James Bobin, working from a dramatically inert script by Ms. Woolverton. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 26, 2016
There should be a sense of, yes, wonder at play at all times here. Too often “Alice Through the Looking Glass” feels like a slog through time. Read full review
40
The New York TimesStephen HoldenMay 26, 2016
The best and maybe the only way to appreciate Alice Through the Looking Glass is to surrender to its mad digital excess and be whirled around through time and space in a world of grotesque overabundance. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMay 25, 2016
This return to Wonderland is a dull outing, about which it can be said that Alice doesn’t live here anymore. Read full review
40
Village VoiceApril WolfeMay 25, 2016
It’s so gorgeous you can sometimes forget the train wreck of a story. But only sometimes. Read full review
40
The GuardianNigel M SmithMay 10, 2016
The studio has managed to deliver a follow-up that’s even weaker than its predecessor. In crude terms: Alice’s second trip to Underland wasn’t worth the wait. Read full review
40
VarietyAndrew BarkerMay 10, 2016
The problem with “Alice” is its lack of narrative imagination. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenMay 10, 2016
Depp is convincingly vulnerable and forlorn, all while maintaining the Hatter’s otherworldly eccentricity, and Wasikowska has the requisite grit. But Alice’s mission feels as manufactured as the story’s whatsits and doodads, as Bobin struggles to infuse make-believe with emotion. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorMay 26, 2016
As Alice, Wasikowska, who has lost the injured look that made her so effective the first time out, creates a character who is fundamentally sweet, likeable and loyal. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshMay 26, 2016
The real problem is that there isn't enough whimsy in the world to save this unengaging story. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 26, 2016
The movie is frequently incomprehensible and, on those occasions when it makes sense, the viewer may wish it didn’t. Read full review
38
USA TodayBrian TruittMay 26, 2016
Looking Glass is instead a competition to see how goofy Johnny Depp can be as the Mad Hatter and how many scenes (and hearts) Helena Bonham Carter can steal as the ragingly high-maintenance Red Queen. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 26, 2016
To watch Alice Through the Looking Glass is to witness an army of smart, creative people dumbing themselves down into delivering what they think the market wants. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniMay 25, 2016
A dull, formulaic theme-park ride whose only purpose is to make more pots of money. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 25, 2016
The sequel to Tim Burton’s 2010 mega-hit “Alice in Wonderland” is loud, frantic, stunningly unfunny, off-putting and riddled with mediocre, out-of-tune work from normally outstanding actors. It’s one of the great movie disasters of 2016. Read full review
35
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMay 10, 2016
What Alice Through the Looking Glass constantly underscores, however, is that even the greatest cinema trickery serves little purpose without stories and characters to support. The pictures are pretty (or scary or awe-inspiring) but they ultimately don’t mean anything. Read full review
33
HitfixDrew McWeenyMay 18, 2016
I think it is precisely because the technical work by everyone from James Bobin down is so good that I find myself infuriated by the film. So much muscle, so much effort, so much raw talent on display, and all in service of demographic-and-merchandise-driven garbage that sullies the name of the source material. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMay 26, 2016
At every turn the filmmakers have simplified, banalized and sentimentalized Alice and her psychological landscape in ways that reek of ignorance at best and cynicism at worst. Read full review
30
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneyMay 26, 2016
Bobin’s visual palette merely hikes up the contrast of every scene, as if enough color might mask the frail narrative beneath. Read full review
30
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 10, 2016
A parade of gaudy CGI and strained whimsy, Alice Through The Looking Glass proves even more manic and grating than its 2010 predecessor. Read full review
25
The PlaylistNick SchagerMay 26, 2016
The off-putting aesthetics of ‘Looking Glass’ are complemented by an equally putrid tale that’s determined to make its protagonist loathsome. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 26, 2016
If you see Alice Through the Looking Glass, prepare to lean forward in your seat just to stay awake. Read full review
25
Washington PostStephanie MerryMay 26, 2016
Wondrous visuals only go so far, in a film that turns out to be lethally dull. Read full review
20
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 26, 2016
While infants and imbeciles might get caught up in whirlwind action, most viewers should brace themselves for a less-than-wondrous return to Wonderland. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty May 25, 2016
Hugely expensive and extravagantly stupid, Alice Through the Looking Glass is just one more silly Hollywood mashup, an innocent fantasy morphed into a noisy would-be blockbuster. Read full review
16
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 26, 2016
It's difficult to not be cynical and redundant to declare this sequel needless for anyone except accountants, considering the studio involved. But this ranks among Disney's most shameless shirkings of its responsibility to creatively entertain, in order to pursue profits. Read full review
16
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 11, 2016
As Alice runs from one hollow set piece to another, hitting every standard mark that a colossal movie like this must in order to pay for itself, her adventure grows less and less interesting with every turn. By the end, all that lessness is too much for the muchness to match it. Less is usually more, but when it comes to this franchise, none would be ideal. Read full review
0
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzMay 26, 2016
I removed my eyeballs from my head as soon as I got back from Alice Through the Looking Glass and cleaned them in a sink. I could have left them in and only cleaned the fronts, but I didn't want to take any chances. Read full review
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