Well, I'm glad to see I'm not alone in my opinion of this film. However, contrary to a comment I made in another thread about not seeing crap movies, I find myself wanting to see "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory" just to have confirmation one way or another. So, I'm not exactly sure how to feel about that, since I try very hard not to be a hypocrite in my own life. Maybe I'll have to chalk this one up to a "gray" area. ;)



- Josh

I haven't seen the film yet, but I think I know what you mean. But Gus Van Sant's idea of remaking "Psycho" shot by shot in color sounded brilliant at first, until you actually saw the movie. If you read Dahl's book, you can easily figure out why Depp and Burton were attracted to doing this film.

This has to be the most useless remake since "Psycho." What scares me is a bunch of studio people looked at the first Wonka and said, "Let's remake that." Hopefully, audiences will ignore this film and, maybe, Hollywood will learn a lesson from its failure.

Josh,

I agree with you. I also grew up loving the original. My friends can't wait to see this movie. I don't think Depp will be nearly as good as Gene Wilder. Wilder's performance was damn near perfect. I do want to see this movie but I am going to go in with low expectations. I thought I remember reading or hearing something about Ronald Dahl and Tim Burton not liking the original Willy Wonka. If that's the case, I don't think I want to see this new one at all.

Michael

I don't think Depp could do as good a job as Gene Wilder did in the original. Also, I've never imagined the Ompa- Lommpas looking like that. But, at least this one looks like a faithful adaptation of the book and not just taking the same concept and making a totally different type of movie, like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" did. I'm just curious, for those who are planning to see, which version are you planning on seeing- Imax or regular 35mm. I'm planning to see it tomorrow afternoon at the Imax in my local theatre.

Let's face it. Nothing will top the sound of the Everlasting Gobbstopper Machine!!! I dare someone to come up with a better part in any of the two movies.:D

As usual, I'll be the humbug. I found it mediocre at best. There is absolutely not even the slightest sense of narrative drive in the film - it's just one scene after another of looking at another cool thing and another and another and another. I loved the songs and I loved Deep Roy - what a great face this man has. But it was just another Burton eye candy film with no life to it - no story, no characters, just lots of cool sets and, in this case, a few good songs. And even with some of the "pretty pictures" I couldn't help thinking "Yeah, but it's just computer graphics crap. There's no there there." I was bored as were the people I saw the film with, including our own Alison McMahan who has literally written the book (or "a" book) on Tim Burton.

I can't say I heard any applause in my theater but no grumbles either. Two different children began crying loudly at different points, and I would suspect the film is a bit too scary for younger children.

I've always loved both the book and the original version of the film, but I'm glad that this version is more like the original book and is not a redo of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Having said that I believe this new version is a better film, but I still think Gene Wilder is better as Willy Wonka. The only complants that I have with the film are that I didn't like Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, he kinda seemed too Michael Jackson- like, also, the ending is nothing like the book (it's added on and doesn't leave any possibility of a Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator remake) and the Ompa Loompa song sequences seemed like a bad drug trip. Also, I want to add that if you live in an area where there is an Imax playing this film, and you decide to go to the regular 35mm version- you're totally missing out.

John and Josh,

Thanks for the good review. It looks like I may have been wrong about this one too. I am definitely looking foward to seeing it now. Thanks.

Michael

Wow! What a day for entertainment. Today we had "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory" come out. The new "Harry Potter" book releases tonight at midnight. The new season of "Battlestar Galactica" starts today... in the words of them "Duke" boys, YEEEEE HAW!

Ok, first off, I just came back from seeing "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory". I have to eat my words and say that this movie was well done. It's definitely a "Burton" film. It was hillarious, the cast was brilliantly chosen. Johnny Depp's version of 'Wonka', wasn't anywhere near as distracting as I thought it would be. Burton DID focus on the main character "Charlie Bucket". It was all the way around, a great movie.

However, as I mentioned in my earlier post, the remake, and the original are too different to compare really. I like the original for what it was, and I like the new one for it's differences. Being that I grew up with the original, I still favor it, but I don't discount Burton's version.


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In the original, I thought the "Oompa-Loompa's" were better done, in that each Oompa-Loompa was played by a different actor. In the new one, actor "Deep Roy", is CG fabricated over and over to create the illusion of hundreds of Oompa-Loompa's. The technique works fairly well comedically, and is employed decently within the film. However, I found it distracting as the film went on, because in the original, even though the Oompa-Loompa's were dressed the same, they were different actors.

A few artistic changes were made by Burton, as was to be expected, but they weren't necessarily bad changes. Burton left out a very significant scene in the film with Charlie and his grandpa, that I thought should have been left in, but the movie still works very well without it.



- Josh