OK movie

Rating: 5/10 (11 December 2009)

Before I begin what I have to say about this movie, let me say that I will not compare this to the 1971 version, I will only compare it to the book that surprisingly a lot of people say this is more faithful to...
The movie was good in the beginning with the Charlie and his family, all the stories about that grandpa Joe told were in the book and it followed the book very well. When the golden tickets were sent out and one at a time a kid finds one, I didn't like how the kids are, Veruca isn't very demanding for what she wants like in the book, Mike Teevee is NOT LIKE EINSTEIN in the book, Violet is not athletic and confident in the book.
As soon as all the children get into the factory the movie started to get worse. Johny Depp's portray of Willy Wonka was not at all the Willy Wonka in the book. Yes I know Willy Wonka is suppose to be a crazy genius like in the book, but Depp's Willy Wonka wasn't like that, Depp's Wonka was bizarre, annoying, childish and pitiful. The looks of the candy room are beautiful and mouth watering, but I didn't like the kid's expressions for the place. They were all in the most "amazing place on earth" and they looked bored except for Augustus Gloop.
What really kicked this movie away from the book is the added subplot about Wonka's past, it was so unnecessary and took Charlie away from the plot for a while.
The children didn't really make a whole lot of sense in many ways, especially in the ooompa loompa songs; Violet is a girl that is very athletic, yet the oompa loompas say she "sits around chewing all day long", Mike Teevee is really smart! He's apparently the only one on the earth that knew how to find a Wonka bar with a golden ticket, and yet he's a video gamer and his brain is "soft as cheese" and "can not think". The kids in the book weren't like the kids in this movie except Charlie, Augustus and possibly Veruca.
The overall mood of the story is not like the world the book brings you in. The book wasn't really that dark, but is wasn't very happy either, sort of in between and yes the book had it's dark moments but the rest was just normal. This movie tried to capture a different world, the lighting was way too dark, the factory was made to look dark and scary and Willy Wonka was freaky looking.
The thing I felt was the most faithful to the book was the Oompa Loompa songs, Danny Elfman did a good job taking the lyrics from the book (even though he left out a lot) and singing them they way they should sound.