A sequel nobody wanted, to a film that was successful,l but unloved, and at a time when it's star was at one of his lowest points. . . can't wait.
Alice (Mia Wasikowska) now a successful explorer and ship's captain, returns to wonderland, via a mirror to discover that the Mad Hatter (John Depp) is in a state of extreme depression regarding the apparent death of his family. Alice resolves to borrow the Chronosphere from Time (Sacha Baron Cohen) and use it to investigate what happened to them. Time refuses to give her the device, which Alice then steals and begins a quest back through the history of her friends, with Time in pursuit.
A change of director for the sequel, but it's essentially in name only as Tim Burton has established the tone and look of the films that James Bobin, of "The Muppets Movie" fame, continues with. That tone and look is of course "whimsy". WHIMSY BY THE BUCKETLOAD. All the forced whimsy that you can possibly manage. And it's all the more boring for it. With the possible exception of Alice, I don't like these characters, even the ones I'm supposed to root for, like the White Queen and the Hatter. They seem like terrible, infuriating people to actually spend time with. It feels like a movie that everyone involved made because they were contractually obliged too, and not because they actually wanted too.
The only bit of the film I do like is the character of Time. I like that he's not a traditional villain, given that he really needs the chronosphere to keep time going and is actually trying to save the world but also I liked that Cohen played him as if he was channelling Werner Herzog, which I found constantly amusing.
With a gun to my head, I might suggest that I liked this more than the original - but genuinely like it, I did not.