Sucks to be Willy

Rating: Null/10 (16 July 2005)

As cheesy and sometimes laughably bad as the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka film was it at least came through with the goods in the end. This much slicker and overall better version makes a few fatal mistakes and collapses with 15 minutes left.
I guess having our current Weirdo Wonder Boy in a role as an eccentric recluse makes any harm done to the overall story justifiable. Therefore, we have a "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" in which Charlie isn't even the main character.
In fact, to call Charlie a character at all would be a major embellishment. Our Charlie starts the film as the Perfect Little English Boy and end exactly as he began. He has nothing to learn from Willy Wonka or anyone else for that matter.
The only story arc belongs to good old Willy. I enjoyed Depp's performance for the most part but I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for him to tell us something worth hearing. The movie is ultimately a failure because he has nothing to tell us. He's a nut, nothing more.
The only point the movie has is made painfully obvious 10 minutes in, everything else is pure eye candy.