Eh

Rating: 6/10 (15 July 2005)

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory (the old one) is one of my favorite movies although I am really open to different "takes" on books. So when I heard that Tim Burton was re-making Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp, I was really excited. Then, I saw a few trailers and thought that it was most definitely going to suck. So I didn't set my expectations too high. I went to see it last night.
It was okay.
What I liked: I liked Johnny Depp's Wonka and I felt that his Wonka was more cutesy rather than dark. He was kind of a nut-job who didn't grow up basically and so his "meaner" moments were more weirdo, oblivious, and childlike than deliberate,witty, or clever. But I was okay with that, it was funny and he did a good job.
I also liked Deep Roy's Oompa Loompas. The songs were direct lyrics from Dahl and they captured the Oompa Loompa size thing better I think. The songs were great and weird and over the top. (<---this is a good thing) I really liked Freddy Highmore as Charlie. He did an excellent job. However, I think they should have spent more time on Charlie's story and eliminated Wonka's back-story because it feels like they just barely touched on Charlie and jumped right into the factory on this version.
What I thought was OK: I wasn't terribly impressed with the factory. The candy room (the one where everything is edible) was just alright in my opinion. I think they could have used the children's and parent's reactions a lot better like in the old one. In this version they seem more bored than creeped out or amazed. In the old version you really get the sense of awe and wonderment when they first go into the candy room, and I like that. The rest of the factory was OK too. It had Burton's classic feel about it and I liked the squirrel room.
The rest of the children were OK at best. I didn't feel like Veruca was enough of a terrible little brat. I wanted to choke the crap out of her in the old version and I didn't get that feeling in this one. Violet was more beastly than obnoxious in this one. Augustus was pretty good. Mike TeeVee was more of a psycho than obnoxious like the old one. All in all I think the children in the old movie were much better with the exception of Freddie Highmore as Charlie. He did a great job as I mentioned before.
What I disliked (here comes the spoiler): I love Tim Burton and his visuals but I have to say that this movie wasn't anything very new for him (snow, weird buildings, blah blah blah...seen it) and the digital effects looked terrible! I don't understand why nowadays people think that it has to be digital to look good. Why not focus more on the story? It looks so fake and cheesy. The brown water in the old movie and Violet in a big round suit looked better. I was excited going into the movie because I had read or saw and interview with Tim Burton saying that they had shied away from digital effects. They didn't. It looked like crap.
The whole Wonka back-story was un-needed and kind of cute (in a not so good way.) It was completely pointless to give Wonka a back-story. In my opinion, it is better not to know where Wonka comes from. He is more of a mystery that way and that's how I think Wonka should be. I hate how everything nowadays has to be spelled out for audiences. Why do we have to know WHY Wonka is this way? Why can't anything just be left as a mystery? Again, I love Burton but his movies also have an incredible knack for spelling things out to the point where you are beating a dead horse.
I absolutely didn't like...no, HATED that all the children come out in the end. The whole point is that their fate is unknown while Charlie is the only one who comes out unscathed. The audience is to be left wondering whether or not the children got incinerated, chopped up, popped whatever...Once again, everything has to be spelled out. I hate that! And what was up with that ending?!?! Up until the children walked out of that building I was thinking that the movie was pretty good. It was all downhill from there. The way they did the ending was completely unnecessary. Not to mention they beat you over the head with the whole Charlie won't betray his family thing (Yes! we know this already!) They strayed too far from the book and it leaves it completely un-open for the great glass elevator. I hated that they went and saw Wonka's father. ALL of it was completely unnecessary. It hurt the movie and I was disappointed. Instead of leaving the theater feeling all charged and excited, I was sad that they completely butchered the ending.
All in all, the movie was just kind of "eh." I'll buy it on DVD but I won't recommend others go rush to see it in the theater.