prylands-389-567480
This pointless remake is a clichéd, glitzy abomination which offers cheesy jokes, sentimental pap and a ridiculous voice-over. The original film might be a little dated but it is so superior to this crud.
grturner-59687
Compared to the 1971 Gene Wilder version, this one beats it on visuals. And on music, if you like dance/pop music as the oompa loompa songs. The plot is also more true to the original source than the 1971 version. However, this one is inferior to Gene Wilders in every other way.The films biggest weaknesses is WIlly Wonka. Something about Johnny Depps performance is off from start to finish. He tries to behave in a weird, eccentric way, but unlike Gene Wilder he fails to add any charm to the character. He comes across as a rude and socially inept character. His whole performance seems forced, an amazing contrast to how natural Depp is playing Jack Sparrow. Someone else should have been cast as Willy Wonka.Charlie is also a problem here, he's a perfect saint like character, a Gary Stu. The charlie in the 1971 version was a good kid but he wasn't perfect. That makes him easier to relate to than the charlie in this version, who would never break any rules and altruistically puts everyone else before himself. Too goody two shoes, ugh. Veruca salts actor also comes across as forced. She's a spoilt brat but she never shouts or loses her temper, in contrast to the 1971 Veruca. This one just says everything in the same, monosyllabic tone. The other golden ticket winners come across more naturally as bad kids, as they should do. This film has some positive aspects, it looks impressive, the chocolate room in particular looks gorgeous, the ever lasting gobstoppers actually look like gobstoppers and it uses squirrels instead of geese. Violet turning into a blueberry is pretty hilarious. Unfortunately the film doesn't have enough hilarious moments. It plays very much as a "box ticking" film, it follows the source material competently but doesn't have much pure imagination of it's own. As someone who grew up reading Dahls books, i expected a bit more.
ralph-wills-sd
It's bad in general. Poorly directed, terrible music soundtrack and Johnny Depp is generally creepy as Willie Wonka. I think Tim Burton tried too hard to make it entertaining.
Dude62
Very well done; well-acted, well-directed, and well arranged for the silver screen. Watching this made feel like I'm re-reading that beautiful book from my childhood. There are only two things that bugs me; one of them is very subjective; when I've read the book back in the days, I've always dreamt the the insides of the chocolate factory would have a blue sky so it would have a much more brighter atmosphere from the dark and cold city thus it would create a great contrast. The second thing that bugged me is much more objective but it's far less important when compared; the narrator appears at the beginning of the movie, establishing things just like in the book, then... he's gone. And then the appears out of nowhere. It feels a little disjointed. Burton took the source material, respected it more than any other comic or novel based production and achieved something bigger than lots of other comic or novel based movie. Well done.
AD
