Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

[Stefen]

Well, that was a worthless read. I doubt people are going to spend a whole weekend reading a book. Why couldn't you see the movie and spend time reading the book? Might as well say nobody is even gonna read that article cause they are either seeing wonka or reading harry potter. Also, I didn't read the article.

[MacGuffin]

I doubt people are going to spend a whole weekend reading a book.

RK, what are your plans this weekend?

[modage]

oh tim burton, what the fuck happened to you?  

the buzz was mixed to negative.  my expectations were low.  the movie still underwhelmed.

i loved everything until they got to the factory and then the movie fell apart.  i really tried to convince myself before we went in that i would do my best to seperate this movie from the original and during the entire opening i thought it would actually succeed.  i was thinking that burton was a perfect match for this material and this WOULD be able to stand on its own as a unique interpretation of the story.  but then they got to the factory and everything else pretty much sucked.

i love depp but i think this performance was not his best.   the songs were not very good and did not seem to fit the film.  i know elfman can do better.

one thing that bothered me was mike teevee is a genius who figured out how to buy ONE wonka bar and get the ticket? and then in his oompa song they're calling him dumb?  thats completely contradictory.

SPOILERS

things i hated:

1. when the kids started 'getting theirs' nobody hardly blinks.  theres no panic or 'what the fuck are you doing to my kid?!?!'  'save him please!' just calmly watching them being possibly killed.  AWFUL.  and seeing the kids walk out at the end was also unneccesary.  just let charlie know they're okay but dont show us that they're still bastards.   and i guess they are all still getting free chocolate for life?

2. the worst part of the whole film was the EXTREMELY protracted ending.  JEESUZ CHRIST, i cant believe the nerve of tim burton to say that HE was sticking to the books tone not like that other unfaithful film and make a change as HUGE as making WONKAS BACKSTORY THE POINT OF THE WHOLE FILM!!!  its not like making the squirrels golden gooses here!  he changed AND drug out the whole ending of the movie so wonka could reconcile with his father!?!? fucking terrible.  and him being schooled by charlie?  not letting his family live there nad being wrong and then having to re-invite them.  what are they doing to this character?  he's no longer a wonderful layered enigma.  he is a fucked up dude that we can see right through.  

this movie was okay at best, but because it is indeed a pointless remake that has not improved upon the original film or added anything new to the book or its own interpretation it makes me want to grade it even harsher.  C-, but deserves a D.  tim burton, why are you wasting your career?  what the fuck happened to you, man?  (corpse bride had better rule.)

[Finn]

I saw this tonight and was pretty disappointed with the whole thing. Johnny Depp was more goofy and annoying than compelling the way Gene Wilder was in the original. I didn't think much of the first one but it was better than this. The musical numbers were awful, unmemorable and just poorly contrived. And the Willy Wonka flashbacks go on forever. It looks interesting and the beginning was fine, but I thought it was disappointing and ultimately pointless.

[RegularKarate]

I doubt people are going to spend a whole weekend reading a book.

RK, what are your plans this weekend?

You know me so well, Mac...  I haven't seen Charlie... right now I'm just taking a break from the book.

[Tictacbk]

i've been goiing into movies in completely the right mood.  I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, plus i thought war of the worlds was one of the best of the summer.  Other people's reviews have made me second guess myself, but i liked the musical numbers, and i thought Depp was childishy hilarious as Wonka.  He had no parents and therefore no transfer into adulthood.  The oompa loompa numbers just made this movie plain goofy and calling them out on how rehersed they seemed made it even better,


I donno maybe i've lost my film snob touch, but blockbuster movies are catching my eye this summer.

couple things i didn't like:
Mike tv being a genius and not even liking candy.
the boat scene wasn't even remotely insane.

[Ravi]

Boy, was this a mixed bag.  Some things worked, but the factory scenes were oddly uninspiring.  The songs weren't very good, and the flashbacks didn't work at trying to flesh out Willy Wonka's background.  The best stuff was in the little house, and Tim Burton cast some interesting looking faces, but overall it was not a memorable experience.

The Oompa-Loompas all look the same in the book, I've heard, but on film it just looks like a special effect.

For some reason I really liked seeing the Rock'em Sock'em Robots.

[Raikus]

Absolute dreck. I don't think there was one thing that worked about this movie. It's not 'Glitter' bad, but just a flat, boring joke of a remake. I nearly fell asleep during one musical scene, something that has never happened before. Nothing had personality. Even Depp, who did the best job aside from Charlie, was mostly two dimensional. There was no depth (pardon the near pun) to any of the characters and they all seemed like xeroxes of their previous incantations.

There was one predominent thought after 45 minutes of this movie. When... will... this... be... over?

The original was magical. It had this insane premise and odd WTF type of feeling, but it clicked. Wilder was fantastical. The boys and girls were stereotypical to the point of joyousness. There's just a wonderful sense about the original that's nearly undefineable.

This was just a waste. It captured nothing the original even brushed upon. The whole movie was like looking at a beautiful landscape painting - it looked pretty, but there was nothing to see beyond the trees.

[deathnotronic]

I didn't necessarily hate this movie, but I definitely didn't like a lot of the aspects of it. The score at the beginning was phenomenal, but when the oompa loompas started to sing, I wanted to shoot myself. Especially that horrid disco song when Violet was blueberry'd (see: punk'd.)

The children seemed well casted, and I thought Charlie and his family did a phenomenal job. I wish Depp wasn't casted for the roll. Depp was too childish in my opinion and could've portrayed Wonka better had his voice not seemed so childish and immature. I also think that the factory's inside seemed too dark. It just wasn't happy enough to be a chocolate factory.

I agree with Raikus in that it was boring, but I definitely think it wasn't fall-asleep worthy.

The cutscene of how Wonka discovered the oompa loompas was probably my favorite part.

This post is very ADD and not very conclusive/well stated/backed up but it's 2am so.

[Kal]

What a dissapointment... fuck it

[Thrindle]

There was one predominent thought after 45 minutes of this movie. When... will... this... be... over?

Yup.  I started to nod off.








SPOILER

Best part... burning puppets.  That at least had me laughing.

[Alexandro]

I've been in the right mood too or something cause your comments, right now as I've just seen the film and had a blast, make you look like you all lost your sense of humour...but then I remember that half of the people around xixax found the pt anderson short "Couch" to be some sort of comic mini masterpiece and argued about it endlessly for days about how great was this and that and I sort of relax and enjoy the irony of it.

Back to Charlie, those Oompa Loompa songs where hilarious, Depp was pretty good, all the family scenes were great...I don't know, it seems that me and the rest of that theatre were having a pretty good time...

Another thing is, I guess you all watched the Gene Wilder movie as children and that's why you love it so much, cause when I watched it at 17 I was like: "what is it that everyone see in this boring piece of shit? that chocolate river looks like a sewer, everything looks like a third world disneyland..." The only good thing about that was Wilder, and I'm not that big of a fan. This one is funny, and at least, differing from every other "children" movie around, tries to say something of interest about the way parents are educating their childrens and how a fucked up adult just raises another...

The 2001 homage was not that funny, but I admire Burton's balls to just do it and fuck with the Kubrick like that. I'm not sure the K would've liked it, and that makes me admire it a little more.

It had some problems, I didn't like the wonka background completely. I mean, Christopher Lee is always cool and all, but that final sentimental scene was fucked up. And the structure did had some moments where it just felt too predictable: "so now what kid is gonna sufer and what kind of song they're gonna come up with?", but for me at least, it wsn't such a serious problem...

And why is it that every movie at xixax has 12 pages of especulative comments and only two of actual opinions of the films??? I wanna know your opinions, damn it!!!

[Pubrick]

And why is it that every movie at xixax has 12 pages of especulative comments and only two of actual opinions of the films??? I wanna know your opinions, damn it!!!

hahaha. prolly cos it's easier to bitch about sumthing before u see it, afterwards u might hav to start backing up ur statements.

[hedwig]

time once again for a magical
out-of-context-quotation

I admire Burton's balls

[Myxo]

I saw this on our IMAX screen tonight here in Oregon. It was my first 70mm print experience.

The kids were great.
Depp was great.
My neck hurts.