Not very good

Rating: 1/10 (3 August 2005)

My wife & I went to see this today (3rd August2005); we were really looking forward to it because of all the media hype and the trailer looking great.
To be honest we both love the original move with Gene Wilder (1971), I also read the book many years ago and enjoyed that as well.
This version we felt was such unadulterated rubbish that we walked out after an hour.
We felt that Johnny Depp was useless as the character as he came across way too young - after all it was supposed to be over 20yrs since Grandpa Joe worked there - Willy didn't look a day over 35 which would have meant that he was but a teenager when he opened the factory.
Deep Roy did a good job at acting as the Oompa Loompas although the musical scenes were so crap it begs belief that Tim Burton actually wasted the money doing those scenes.
I think that using a primarily British cast was a new twist! About the only things in our opinion that had improved over the 1971 version was the visual effects - these were excellent; and giving some background to some of the characters was also a good idea.
Overall given that we could only bear to watch the first hour, I would say, don't waste your money - go and rent the 1971 version from the local video store.