Good from an objective point of view; poor when compared with possibilities

Rating: 5/10 (28 July 2005)

I would have enjoyed this movie much more had I not become a huge fan of the 1971 version of Charlie a long time ago. However, when I went to see Burton's take on it, I spent the whole movie comparing the two. As many other people said, it doesn't do either justice to try and decide which one is "better". Neither is genuinely true to the book, so die-hard book fans will probably still be left unhappy (although I must admit that Burton stayed much closer to Dahl's original, despite the sub-plots that the movie threw in). This is a good movie to see if you come in unprejudiced or if you didn't like the other version, but otherwise, it will seem like a mediocre shade of the '71 movie/book.
My first problem with this film is Johnny Depp. I, personally, found him extremely annoying, but perhaps not so much because of his acting as because of the script. Having grown up with Gene Wilder's version, I never saw Willy Wonka as aloof and rude. Sure, Depp had his funny moments, but when he wasn't being funny, I wanted to strangle him. I saw no connections, no opinions from him about the kids except dislike. It just didn't seem right to me. I thought Wonka was childish, not petulant. Even if his performance wasn't based off of Michael Jackson, it sure came off that way.
The children were a mixed bag. Augustus was good, given the limited time he had. Veruca and Charlie were fine, not too overdone. But every time Violet or Mike came on screen, I wished for the movie to suddenly skip until they were gone. Violet has been updated to be an snobby overachiever instead of just a gum chewer (which I never found anything too bad about, personally; her only problem was that she was greedy and obstinate and just took Wonka's gum without asking). People like that are bad enough in real life, and I really don't want to go to movie-fantasy-world just to see more of them. Mike Teevee became an arrogant hacker-type who didn't really start to really get on my nerves until later on. Personally, I hate to pay in order to watch a movie that annoys me, although it does have some redeeming humorous moments.
I could go on for a while, but most of the other problems are minor and fade into the background. One addition, though, that many people have griped about, was Wonka's background, not present in the book. I found that to be one of the few good qualities of the movie. At least it wasn't changing something that had already been done; it just filled up a black hole that was never there. And while Depp is butchering Wonka anyways, why not go the whole way? I found it quite funny, actually. It also helped me deal with Depp's unsympathetic Wonka more. While the book version and Wilder's take didn't really need sympathy, Depp did. He really, really did.
Final Take: Go to this movie if you are in a good mood and you don't expect to be easily annoyed; avoid if you're a die-hard fan of Dahl or Wilder, unless you want to go to vindicate your belief that this will be a horrible mess. It's fun for a while, better than doing nothing and definitely better than most kids' movies. 6/10