I was let down. I'm glad that I didn't pay money for this. The story felt like it was written by a committee who threw out anything that might be controversial and thought provoking. It was so watered down. It was as bland as Porridge.
The thing the bothered me the most was how they made the principal character perfect. In other words, he did not change at all. There was no "character arc". He learned nothing. He was never challenged. Everything he did and said was saintly and politically correct.
In the original film, Charlie and his grandfather were not perfect. They too, like the other children, yielded to temptation. However, Charlie redeemed himself. The film was about redemption. This version... I have no idea what it was about.
It is hard to identify with someone who has no faults.
On a lesser note, the character Willie Wonka, as played by Johnny Depp, was creepy. I couldn't help but think of him as a self-deluded, Michael Jackson style, pedophile man-child who should be kept as far away from children as possible. Watching him walk into his "Neverland" with those kids gave me the creeps. But we know how I feel about Michael Jackson.
The new version of the Oompa Loompas as one computer multiplied actor, Deep Roy, was interesting, and actually more true to the book than the 1971 version. But the musical acts were terrible. Don't hold this against Deep Roy. He has an impressive acting resume and has been around a very long time.
This is a $2 rental. Wait for when you to have a mindless movie night at home.
1 comment:
Hey Ron...I am truely suprised that you thought there would be any substainance to this movie re-make. It is the nature of modern movies to be with-out effort or art. The goal realy is to spit out a factory mills worth of mindless movies for a seemingly mindless population. People do get treated the way they act.
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