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A fair but brief assessment: The 2016 Alice Through the Looking Glass is visually splendid but narratively uneven. It improves on its predecessor ( Alice in Wonderland , 2010) by giving the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) a genuinely tragic backstory involving time travel and sibling jealousy. Sacha Baron Cohen as Time is a witty, scene-stealing addition. However, the film suffers from overstuffed CGI, a convoluted plot, and a softened, less anarchic spirit than Lewis Carroll’s original. Mia Wasikowska remains a grounded Alice, but the movie leans more on spectacle than substance. A guilty pleasure for fans of the first film, but forgettable for general audiences.