Just come back from the cinema and have to say I’m a little
disappointed. I know everyone seemed to love this film, but really I
felt let down. Johnny Depp was amusing. Liz Smith as Grandma Georgina
was fantastic and the film was genuinely funny for the most part. But
the film just wasn’t right.
- Willy Wonka was just plain weird at points. Not quirky, not
eccentric, but outright weird. The inability to say parents was
annoying and he wasn’t quite right. He should have been more furious at
Augustus for drinking the chocolate instead of a bit concerned. He
should have been more concerned with warning the children about the
results caused by their behaviour. Instead, at one point he almost
seemed sadistic, enjoying Veruca Salt’s fate. - Talking of Veruca, for a brat, she wasn’t nearly brattish enough. I
want someone more like a young Bonnie Langford. - Mike Teavee was obsessed with computer games rather than TV.
- The whole back story bothered me. There was no need to include it and
there certainly was no need to change the ending. It failed to leave
room for the sequel. - The whole spy aspect of the book was removed for no good reason. I
want my ever-lasting gobstoppers, dammit. - The style of the outside world was too dark. I know it is Tim
Burton’s style, but it isn’t Roald Dahl’s. - The look of the film was too much Burton and not enough like Blake’s
illustrations. - The music wasn’t as good as I’d come to except from Danny Elfman.
The Oompa Lumppas’ songs just didn’t seem right. The incidental music
was typically Elfman/Burton, but that just made it sound like
Batman/Edward Scissorhands. - Charlie’s comments about their first song being a touch rehearsed
wasn’t expanded as well as it could have been. It was only mentioned
after Augustus’ song. - There was too much american slang in the film. Everything was candy,
not sweets. Charlie had dirty pants. Vacation rather than holiday. - The perspective room at the beginning of the film was ruined by some
really bad editting. It could have worked so much better if they had
shown them walking up the the small door, rather than cutting to them at
it already. - Wonka described everything in the garden as eatable, not edible.
On the plus side, having Deep Roy playing every oompa-lumppa was
genius.
I think basically, I prefer Gene Wilder. Sorry guys; close, but no
cigar.
And I seem to have nearly burnt my kitchen down grilling sausages
:S
on said:
If it was that disappointing, surely not leaving room for the sequel is not all bad? 😉
on said:
I’m with you on almost everything – although I thought the switching of Mike’s obsession from TV to video games was a reasonable updating – however, I take issue with this:
That’s an artifact of the earlier movie, and not in the actual book at all. Except for the whole dental backstory, this version was much closer to the book than the Gene Wilder version.
Veruca Salt really was a disappointment.
on said:
Mea Culpa. Someone else said that the spy thing was in the book. I wasn’t sure, but didn’t have the book to hand to check. I think the biggest issue with the back story was the altered ending.
on said:
I think a lot of people’s problem with this film is that they try to compare it with the old film. This is a new take on the story, and I for one enjoyed it a lot more.
I don’t think Wonka was upset when the children encountered their fate because in some sense he knew what was going to happen. I got the feeling that the entire tour had been rehearsed.