Mid-way through I decided I didn't like it

Rating: 3/10 (25 July 2005)

Tim Burton misses the mark... again. Here is a story that it seems to me would be difficult to ruin: a kid's movie about magical chocolate. The movie starts off well enough. We are introduced to Charlie's family and town and learn about the Chocolate factory. The finding of Charlie's ticket to visit the factory slowly lumbers towards its inevitable conclusion. This is my first complaint that the finding of the ticket was not serendipitous but treated as if desire can influence reality (remember kids, you can win the lottery so long as if you really, really want to win). OK. So what. It's forgivable. The story moves on and we find ourselves on a tour of the factory. For a while things are fine and then with one new plot device -- the elevator -- things go completely downhill. Now effects rather than character take over the story (I don't call them special effects because it's not often anymore that they 'wow' us... they are ordinary effects). The characters also act completely unnatural during some of these scenes (i.e., the parents and Wonka just sit back and watch barely concerned as their children do dangerous things). Anyway, the movie goes on until the end. There's no point about it except the most cliché of moral lessons "your family is important".
The kids in the theater laughed a few times (but not as much as they have the potential for). As an adult, I laughed twice. Once was at a pretty good joke, I must admit, about what's edible. The other was at something that wasn't intended to get a laugh.
Oh, regarding Wonka, what a strange dude! He's got problems... real problems.