An unexpected delight

Rating: 5/10 (29 July 2005)

To be perfectly honest I didn't expect anything from this movie. I loved the book as a kid,but hated the first movie: "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory".Roald Dahl himself didn't like that movie which says a lot.
However I was pleasantly surprised that I really ended up enjoying this movie.Johnny Depp is amazing as Wonka,outshines Wilder by a long shot. His portrayal is not scary,but wonderfully weird. Young Freddie Highmore as Charlie was equally as good and has a real future as an actor if he decides to keep it up. The rest of the cast also gave amazing performances,especially veteran Irish actor David Kelly as Grandpa Joe (remember that episode of Fawlty Towers??? :D).
I was however disappointed that they replaced the story of the rival candy maker who asks the children to steal an ever-lasting gob stopper with the story of Wonka's father and his childhood.However that wasn't in the book either but in the end they both give us the same result,Charlie is a kind-hearted young boy who deserves the factory and Christopher Lee is always worth watching. However it seemed like something Spielberg would do (happy sappy ending) and it was kind of annoying.
However overall,this combined with the amazing visual effects makes this movie well worth seeing.