Review of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) by Kena T — 30 Dec 2013

I love Tim Burton, he's a great director (for the most part) with clever ideas and a unique style that can definitely work. I also love Johnny Depp, for his charismatic acting and his unique style as well which goes so well with Burton. But the classic 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a great film without a doubt. When I heard that they were remaking it I had no problems with it...but that was BEFORE I saw this piece of shit movie.

Firstly...it was around the time of this movie when I realized that Depp was getting old in his acting. It seems like he created an eccentric and creepy character in Fear & Loathing and developed it further in the PotC franchise, falling in love with that performance so much that he hardly used any other. And that's a shame because he's done so many various roles before! Still the Sparrow character is used here and it just doesn't work. It's like Jack Sparrow walked into the set and wouldn't leave so Burton just decided to make the movie about him. Second...that kid who plays Charlie is BLAND AS SHIT! He's not compelling, not emotional like the '71 Charlie was, and he does NOT work the way a normal kid of that age would, which is what the original Charlie was supposed to be (minus, of course, that he's poor). This Highmore kid tries to be a kid Jesus and that doesn't work! Now the scenery in the movie is alright and to be honest kinda intelligent, but it stops being about Charlie and becomes what the book and original movie weren't about: Willy Wonka himself. Doesn't it seem odd that the original, entitled by Wonka's name (as both advertisement and because Charlie was a stereotypical term for the Viet Cong at the time) was actually about the main character and the film named for Charlie was about the man who was MEANT to be a mystery? It just seems like both Burton and Depp didn't understand the book or the original movie at all. Thankfully it wouldn't be long (2 years) before Depp would actually play a character unlike Sparrow in Sweeney Todd, then go right back to Sparrow and seems to still use this worn-out cloak of a style to this day.