Alice Through The Looking Glass
This is not a movie I expected to review. Unlike Jupiter Ascending I didn't really think of the spiritual metaphorical content of Alice in Wonderland. Perhaps it was because of a childhood memories. I never liked the animated movie because it seemed like such a terrible nightmare. Alice in Wonderland was never a character I liked and I have never and have no intention on ever reading the books. That said, upon watching Alice Through The Looking Glass I realized something deep and meaningful. At first, I couldn't give it words but now I can really perceive it and it is a movement that I did not realize had occurred within humanity. It is not the writers fault that this movie flopped so terribly but a change in perception that has occurred within humanity that has perhaps not been named. I didn't realize that it occurred until I was trying to figure out why this movie didn't work for most people. I understood the message that it conveyed, I've seen it a thousand times and most poignantly in the movie Return To Oz but I was really puzzled as to why the Millennial's who were such fans of the first movie didn't understand the second. The First Movie I must admit I was not a huge fan of the first movie. I didn't find it mind blowing in any way shape or form. The moral was that Alice, who was supposed to commit to an arranged marriage undergoes an experience that gives her the ability to say, "No." The message of the first movie was a terrific one for the latest generation and many say the movie has defined this generation. They say it is the movie of the Millennials. If this is true than the message of the millennials is non-compliance. The insistence is to be individuals and not convert to Group Think based on social expectations. This, in the past, was equated with being "Mad" or "Crazy." To not do as society demanded often led to people being cast out of their societies and death so it is not a pleasant association. (At the time, when I first watched this movie I didn't make the association with the story of Inanna and her descent into the Underworld. There is definitely a feeling of that in the original movie but that may be a future blog. I just wanted to note here that movies such as Wizard of Oz and Alice In Wonderland were always interchangeable to me when I was a child. I often got those two confused and while both are considered coming of age stories...they might be echoes of a much older story that humanity has been telling for antiquity. On a side note as well Hatter clearly represents a different way of thinking than what had occurred to Alice before, a way of framing and putting things into context, but that too is destined for a blog on the original movie.) The best and defining line of Alice was the one where the Mad Hatter asks if he is mad and she says all of the best people are...
The Plot Of The Second Movie
I was, based on friends who were fans of the original expecting a nonsensical move. Instead, the plot was a bit weak but it definitely made sense. I find this reassuring, because this movie straddles a point of view that might well be completely out dated but I will get to that thought later. Alice has become captain of her fathers ship the Wonder. With it she's done the impossible including escaping pirates against all odds. She comes home to discover that her mother, again, is in financial difficulty. Her trip that was supposed to take a year has taken three years. Her mother has signed over the house to Alice's ex-fiancee. Alice's ex-fiancee will let her mother keep the house if she will sell the Wonder to him and become a clerk. For a girl as strong willed and wild in Spirit as Alice this is equal to a death sentence. This is when the blue butterfly arrives and she follows him into Wonderland for another journey inward of self-discovery. The Hatter had come across a hat that he made as a child. He thought it was thrown away. He thought that if he had found that hat and that the hat had survived despite all odds his family might have as well. The different characters that served a purpose in the first movie- the talking dog, the other members of the tea party, the Tweedles, and the Cheshire cat are all included in this movie in awkward scenes. If these character's had simply been removed the entire movie would have been way better. In order to save Hatter Alice has to go back in time and potentially save his family. Only she can do it because if any of the others go they will see themselves and break time. Alice then goes into a clock where she must steal the Chronospher from Time. The Chronosophere is what runs the great clock, and the great clock is Time...they are one and the same. The Queen of Hearts has been dating Time, Alice discovers, and appears to want the Chronosphere as well. Alice then steals the Chrnosphere, a spherical contraption that has the instruments of a boat to control it. Goes into the past and discovers the back story of how the Queen of Hearts got such a big head. What is strange is that the plot is so completely different from what the teaser trailer had made it appear. Yes, Alice travels through the Sea of Time, a really confusing and never explained part of the movie, to witness the past and find the truth about Hatter's family. I won't go into how Hatters family doesn't make any sense at all, either, because unlike Hatter they appear completely human.
Thoughts
Many of the side characters, including the Cheshire cat, had absolutely no place in this movie. Forcing them to be included in this movie made it feel very cartoony. I had expected the movie to be far worse based on what other people had said. The movie was bad, I have to admit, and it really didn't fit the teaser trailer at all but it did have a plot. Yet, I think that it is, at long last, the reason for the disconnect with the audience of the previous movie. Worse yet, there was no reason to care about the characters in the movie. The Queen of Hearts, it turns out, had very shallow and stupid reasons to become so evil. She was one of the main characters, perhaps even the main character in this film, but they did a sloppy job of telling her story. In fact, I don't even remember what happened to her at the end because it really didn't matter. They could have done done so much more with that character. That said it was very interesting to personify Time. There were a few scenes that were full of metaphorical fun. However, just like the Queen of Hearts they did a sloppy job with him. He was probably the most interesting character but very little time (haha!) was devoted to him and his character was not developed on any level. The movie had a lot of potential but it fumbled all of the opportunity. Instead, the character interactions that made the first movie great were completely missing. The plot is essentially the same as the first movie but less interesting and with less character development. There were a lot of avenues that the story could have gone down that would have been more fulfilling and satisfying to movie goers. Watching it I felt as though someone had conceived a brilliant idea but failed to flesh out the details completely and relied on easy "feels" referring to the previous movie to make the audience happy. There could have been some deep spiritual pondering but it stuck to a shallow rehash of the first movie adding absolutely nothing to the character of Alice. To sum up the plot here is an inexact line Alice says to Time just before she leaves, "I have always thought Time was a thief. Now I realize that you give and then you take away." Appreciation, I suppose, for what we have is what Alice learns in this movie but it doesn't quite make sense. I found the idea of the Hatter dying because no one believed his family was alive to be one of the most disappointing aspects of the story. Those scenes were simply poorly done with the meaning conveyed so obtusely it could be easily missed. No doubt, the Hatter symbolizes the part of Alice that was dying when it came to the decision she had to make in the real world...again, it is a slippery metaphorical layer to the movie not easily grasped. Meditations On The Time Character I find it reassuring so many did not really perceive the message of this story. The story is an old one dressed up with new graphics and it really didn't have much innovation. The plot of this movie was something I would expect to be written in the 1800's when we thought of the universe as more of a mechanical system. These days, we realize that the cosmos is much more fluid and not so linear. To me, that this movie was rejected suggests a lot more people believe in life after death than ever before. The stop watches being closed and then moved to another room is no longer an apparent metaphor for death in our society. The message that Time is not a thief but something that gives very graciously to us is also something I don't think resonates with most people. Hence, why so many didn't really "get" the message of this story. This too, is reassuring because it says that people don't feel as bound by time as they once did nor do they see life as a brief gift that is 'given' and then 'taken away.' The Time character was a God-Like character, watching unbiased over life and death, existing outside of time and space. This abstract idea, the Hidden God in the Kabbalah system, is not exactly known to society. Given that time is usually associated with the not so pleasant God Saturn I found this personification even more fascinating. Again, I'm glad that this character didn't really resonate with people because it does not, at the core of my being, resonate with me. A cold, cruel, impartial dictator in charge of our Destiny is just wrong. This movie had the feel of something written in the 1800's that just doesn't quite "get" this New Age. Further, the idea that "Time" can be broken if we go backward and forwards in it is also changing in the public perception. The idea of parallel realities, thanks to Quantum computing confirming there are such things, and that time is more of a spiral or cyclical in nature makes it...a little bit more wibbly wobbly instead of a fixed linear straight line. This again, shows a disconnect from the writer who is approaching all of this from the 1800's fixed point of God and Time with the current audience. In fact, it calls to mind that most of Academia represents the 1800's point of view of a Mechanical linear Universe. As a whole humanity is starting to perceive the Cosmos as more of a living fluid ocean of consciousness instead of a Grandfather Clock. When will Academia and Hollywood catch up to this more fluid perspective that humanity has embraced? When will they realize that the old mechanical universe idea has been completely dismissed, that it is an idea over two hundred years old, and that humanity has moved on? No one uses a stop watch anymore. The ideas in this movie are just as antiquated as that time piece that Alice gives to Time. The hands of time have gone digital...if you're going to update Timeless Classics, Hollywood, it is time that you completely update them to the New Age or you're not going to connect with your audience. Conclusion This was one of those movies when I saw the trailer I looked at 2016 and knew it was a year where a major decision was going to be made. I still believe that we can get a feel for the pulse of the Unconscious Collective by looking at what movies are coming out and, in particular, trailers. I find that it absolutely true that it did convey the proper message. If we had gone with Hilary Clinton, and I will stand by this statement, it would have led to Nuclear War. Time was running out for humanity to decide if they wanted to be annihilated on a Collective Unconscious level. When this trailer came out in 2014 I would never have guessed Clinton would make the statements she did about Russia in the debates. I would never guess that there was a sergeant in the U.N. that would later be ousted as trying to incite a war with Russia for financial trade reasons. All of that came out this year and it is what put the nail in Clinton's coffin. I find it really interesting that the trailer was misleading about the movie's contents. Perhaps, they knew they had a turd in their hands and were trying to make it appear to have a better plot than it did. The trailer is far better than the movie. Yet, at the same time this movie is important as it does indicate that society has moved on from the linear fixed Mechanical Universe point of view that never made sense. To me, this is a wonderful realization because it shows that we really have moved into a new age of reasoning and perceiving the world. There are still old tatters and bits of the way we used to look at things but it has changed dramatically from the 1800's. We are more aware of the system that we live in and how mankind cannot make a bastardization of that natural Order or System. As a Collective I think that's what we are examining now...and what movies like Jurassic Park have hinted. Are we going to continue to force our will on this planet and the Cosmos? Are we going to replace animals and our own bodies with machines? Are we going to continue to defy the Natural Order or are we going to find our place in Harmony with it? I think that the latter has already been chosen on a higher level of existence (the template level) but that is a subject worthy of an entire meditation blog right there. As a group we have not made the decision on a conscious level of existence. Often, as a collective unconsciousness we like to explore the other option completely and fully before we make our choice. We will, as a group, examine what want we don't want in detail before we really see this new point of view kick in.
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Brave Soul! May Your Journey On The Path Of The Seeker Bring You Joy and Peace! I'm currently posting every Saturday. With a new addition the family I have pre-scheduled most posts through December 2022. Full Moon Posts will contain up-to-date content when I can get to them. Thank you so much for your support and understanding! This is a place where you can encounter new spiritual ideas that have helped me develop as an Individual On The Path of the Seeker. Take or Leave this information as you see fit. Archives
April 2024
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