8) Alice Through The Looking Glass
Even the most forgiving Tim Burton fans will admit that 2010’s diluted Alice in Wonderland wasn’t the director’s finest hour. Yet, the Lewis Caroll adaptation earned over a billion dollars around the world, thanks in large part to the once-profitable 3D boom and Johnny Depp’s once-beloved screen presence. As such, we’re now bestowed with Alice Through a Looking Glass, a wonky, unbecoming, unwelcomed live-action sequel that should’ve remained late for its “very important” date.
Every single person on-screen, from Mia Wasikowska struggling in the titular role to Anne Hathaway sleepwalking through her part as the White Queen, looks as if they’d rather be doing anything else other than appearing in this contractually-obligated snoozer. Even Sacha Baron Cohen, as a goofy, loopy personification of Time, seems to grow tired of his own self-amused antics.
Replacing producer Burton in the director’s chair, the immensely-talented James Bobin (The Muppets, Flight of the Conchords) brings little-to-none of the wonder, heart or imagination that’s found bubbling throughout his other, much better work, opting to instead fall suit with the obligations bequeath onto him by Disney’s hawk-eyed studio suits. Charmless, uninspiring, strained and deeply unenthused, Alice Through the Looking Glass was among the year’s most unwelcomed, unconvincing sequels — and that’s saying something in 2016, the year of The Huntsman: Winter’s War and Ice Age: Collision Course.
When it comes to peaking through this looking glass, we suggest you take a hard pass. But you probably figured as much already.