A good effort but lacking.

Rating: 6/10 (15 July 2005)

I think I like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory better than the 1971 version, although it's been quite a while since I've seen it. I had only seen the original once and have never read the book so I didn't remember what the movie was about other than 5 kids getting invited to a chocolate factory. I was mildly entertained but nothing really was all that amazing. Depp did an OK job (he never once reminded me of Michael Jackson as some reviewers have commented), and Burton's visual style is evident from the opening credits. Freddy Highmore was very good although he didn't really have all that much to do. The rest of the cast seemed to work OK. I hated the musical numbers.
In the end the story doesn't really work for me. I don't think any version would ever rate higher than 6 on my scale...