Special effects masterpiece, but lacks charm and pacing

Rating: 6/10 (23 July 2005)

This updated version certainly provides exceptional special effects that were not possible when the original movie was made; I never thought that something wasn't possible. Although, I wondered how Augustus Gloop could be sucked into a machine with such force that his eardrums or eyeballs wouldn't explode, but that would be an awful scene for a 6-year-old to witness.
Johnny Depp usually provides a great interpretation of the characters he plays, and he certainly put forth a lot of effort to create Willy Wonka. However, Willy Wonka comes across not as eccentric, but just plain weird. In the original, Gene Wilder provided an element of eccentricity that would be appropriate for a business man who spends most of his day dreaming up new ways to entertain the senses rather than counting money. He had excitement and despair. Johnny Depp doesn't count money, but he seems to have created a character that plays like a weird assistant to Willy Wonka rather than Wonka himself. Other than the disappointments of his own childhood, he didn't seem to have a heart. There was no element of goodness sneaking a peak now and then. This is distracting to the movie because I never got a sense that I understood Wonka, nor did I want to. This persona is someone to avoid.
I've read that this new version interprets the darkness of the book (that I never read) more than the original movie did. There is nothing wrong with being dark, but there needs to be charm. Even dark villains can have charm, but there was no charm here. For example, Veruca's father bought thousands of candy bars to find the golden ticket before we ever saw Veruca demand that he get her a ticket. This reduces the effect of Veruca's spoiled behavior and makes her just seem whiny. This is one example of the moving putting the cart before the horse and screwing up the pacing.
Another disappointment is that the original movie gave us an immediate way to watch and measure the integrity of the children and their parents by finding out who was ready to give away an Everlasting Gobstopper. There is a similar test of integrity in the new movie, but the test is only on Charlie and only at the very end of the movie. Charlie does want to sell his ticket at the beginning of the movie in order to serve the greater good of his family, but his family members prove their integrity by telling him that it would be impossible for him to sell a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. However, we go through the rest of the movie without a test of integrity for all of the other children. Why? We are left to assume that they were all ugly and obnoxious and without any redeeming qualities. Augustus may be a glutton, but we weren't shown any other failings. In the original, we got some peeks at what Charlie and his grandpa thought about the other kids' obnoxious behaviors, but not so in this movie. It seems that obnoxious behavior is normal and results in mistakes rather than revealing them as life-long character flaws.
While some elements of this movie were presented in the same manner as the original, the lack of charm and pacing in this movie made me understand how the original movie provided an overall better effect (except for the FX). I just wasn't impressed with this movie. Every other movie that I have seen Tim Burton make is a good or great movie. And, every other character Johnny Depp has created has been dead-on and quite often original. This movie experience is so-so. I give it a 6 for special effects.