Syl I didn't really read Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass which is the film's basis for his version. It has a first rate cast like the red queen played by Sian Phillips in one silly red costume and the white queen played by Penelope Wilton again in a silly white costume. There is too much talking at times and not much action for this film to serve a purpose. At the end of the tale, I didn't understand what happened to Alice all along. Did she learn a lesson about the looking glass. Anyway, the costumes are definitely silly maybe too silly to be taken seriously. I didn't understand what Alice and the world in the Looking Glass was doing. I didn't understand how the white queen went from small to life-size to talk with Alice. I thought there were some moments but the writing seemed to take forever for things to make sense or none at all. Still, it should be shown regarding the Alice books.

johnstonjames wow. brilliant. definitely love this adaptation. not only is it very faithful to Carroll's original text, but it's wildly inspired and very hipster funny. not to mention Kate Beckinsale is outstanding and a very natural Alice.everybody always does 'Wonderland' and throws in elements of 'Looking Glass', there have been very few versions of a true 'Looking Glass' adapted. there was the excellent TV special with Judi Rollin's and the Smothers Twins, but that wasn't very faithful to the story. i mean it had the wicked witch from 'Hansel and Gretel' in it. there was a cartoon with Janet(judy jetson)Waldo and Mr.T. i think the casting in that speaks for itself.this version of 'Looking Glass' is not only very faithful, it actually goes as far as to include the poem of 'The Wasp and the Wig' which Carroll wrote, but edited out of his original version.this also has one of the funniest recitations of 'The Walrus and the Carpenter' i have ever seen or heard.with everything about this version being so absolutely perfect, i think it's really notable that one of the very best things about it is Kate Beckinsale's Alice. her interpretation is outstanding. one of the very best and most personalized. I've never seen a 'Alice' film or entertainment i didn't like (easy to please i guess), and one of the strangest mystique about the 'Alice' films, i believe, is that even when the adaptations can have some flaws or short comings ( the Steve Allen version for instance), the actresses that play Alice are always excellent casting. from Henry, Marsh, to Rollins, Fullerton and Gregory, ALL the Alices i have seen have been just perfect. and Kate Becinsale is no exception. Beckinsale is not "practically perfect". she's perfect.this is a interesting approach too. whereas sometimes Alice is played by a older actress playing a little girl, the 'Alice' here is actually Alice's mother imagining herself in the little girl's adventure. the approach is inspired and unique and it works beautifully. as a adult, i really relate to Beckinsale's Alice most of all sometimes, because she is actually a adult reflecting upon childhood. as a adult who loves this story, i can really relate to this approach profoundly. i especially love the closing moment when Beckinsale's mother looks back at the mirror with a confused, somewhat disturbed and reflective look on her face. i love the book, but let's face it, it's somewhat of a enigma and confounding.purist will probably quibble with this version, like they do with most every version, since supposedly 'Alice' is un-filmable. supposedly. they really shouldn't. i mean what other version would be knowledgeable enough to give us the 'Wasp and the Wig'.enough is enough concerning 'Alice'. i think it's time to give credit to the wondrous legacy of imagination this great story has inspired in entertainment. i feel sorry for those quibbling purist. they don't know what they're missing. i've loved all the versions, i even enjoyed the lackluster Tim Burton dud ( i mean Depp was just terrific).'Wonderland' is one of my favorite places to escape to, and this version is great fun. it's intellectualized, lofty and cerebral, without being at all pretentious. it's just the opposite. it's funny and fanciful.

Robert One might think that with a stellar cast (Sian Phillips, Ian Richardson, et al) and such rich source material, "Alice Through the Looking Glass" would do justice to the beloved book. Alas, it is far from the case here.Kate Beckinsale is one of the films biggest liabilities. News to any producer or director of any future version of either of Carroll's two "Alice" books: the "Alice" in the stories is between 7-1/2 and 9 years of age; NOT in her 20s! The story is absolutely absurd with an "Alice" that old. The internal logic of both stories depend entirely upon Alice being mystified by the world of adults. How can this work when SHE HERSELF is an adult?! It just makes her look like an adult with the mind of a child.Problem #2: the production values are laughably amateurish, and not in a charming, inventive "Doctor Who" way. The "special effects", such as they are, are the sort that come as handy plug-ins in Adobe Premiere; "liquid mirror", "tunnel vision", and the like. Also, green-screening abounds, in its crudest form. Editing is likewise god-awful, with harsh cuts, bad segues, lost continuity, etc.Problem #3: the music. It really does sound as if the director got his hands on a CD of "Generic Library Music for Fairy Tales", and simply plugged the background music in, and as often as possible. There is none of the creative scoring of great earlier versions of "Alice..." Problem #4: the pacing is glacial. Carroll's wordplay should delight the ears and enliven the plot. Nothing could be further from the truth here. It is a stultifyingly boring production, with long passages of nothing worth paying attention to. There are, thankfully, two recitations that are *almost* magical (by the "Wasp" and the "White Knight"), but those rely more upon those actors' verbal skills than on the images they accompany, which are a potpourri of low-tech gimmicks (stop-motion animation, grain effects, etc.)Surely, someone out there could make a worthwhile version of "Alice Through the Looking Glass". Great cast (well, most of them) notwithstanding, his one is about as far from it as could be imagined. Carroll fans should give it a wide berth.

Strutter9 The film has beautiful scenes. A movie for intelligent adults rather than children, the performances are subtle and allow for the nuances of meaning that the mathematician author placed into his book. With more obvious acting, the movie would have become clichéd. I found Kate Beckinsale's portrayal of Alice to be intriguing, particularly her insouciance in the face of insults. Ian Holm, as usual, was masterful, playing the White Knight in a way I had not thought possible. The movie is unique, a treat for watching many times.