Film A new and accurate take hampered by nostalgia.
The prime reason people don't like this film is because they're so used to the original. Viewing it more critically, I think this movie is a great adaptation.
For one, in terms of accuracy, it does a great job of capturing the book with new vision but more of the original text (including Dahl's actual Oompa-Loompa songs instead of the annoying cookie-cutter tune in the original), and updates the story for modern sensibilities in some clever ways. The story is closer to the book in its turns and while I admire the original film's intentions to invent, I think the original story had it about right. Charlie is a good kid and that's about it. No temptation comes into play. The story isn't about why Charlie is a good kid, it's about how parents can mess up a child, with him being the exception, the "control", to compare to the rest. And the scenes with the Buckets are genuinely touching and melancholy, but not too overdone. They provide a great contrast to the bad families on the tour.
I feel the original film was hampered by budget and technology, because comparing the Chocolate Rooms to the book reveals the differences. In the original, it's obviously inside a warehouse and the chocolate looks like diluted paint at best. Here, it's more of an edible wonderland and the chocolate river looks rich, creamy and delicious, though the factory is still in the background. The visuals have all of Burton's relatable yet quirky and new design features, which work so well for Dahl.
The updates are good, too. Gum-chewing was the nasty trait of Violet, but here, it's a part of her true flaw, general competitiveness, fueled by an insecure stage mom. Gum-chewing seemed like a really dumb thing for parents to encourage, anyway, so here, it's a better commentary. Mike is a violent gamer now, which is definitely a real demographic, if not a universal truth.
And Wonka. How did this wonderfully eccentric madman turn into a creepy game show host? My question is...how didn't he? He's supposed to be unsettling, rude, and sketchy to the group, and we get that. It's a perfectly valid update, because the loony-grandpa vibes of the original don't seem as alarming to us now, and Wilder's version was close to the book but is more sympathetically whimsical. Here, it's still a crazy maniac with unorthodox methods, just changed for our sensibilities, and without such obvious darkness. He's very different, but also very much in line with the intent of the character. Wonka isn't creepy because he's misunderstood, it's just that Charlie can see more than the others. I also like the way the suspiciously perfect nature of the incidents is addressed, with Wonka being shown to not want the accidents to happen even though he's sure they will.
I don't think the backstory for Wonka was necessary, but it fits Dahl's writing well enough and a relatively harmless addition is better than a needless deviation.
Please give this film a chance. It does a lot right.
Film Wilder Wonka is best Wonka
I could rant on and on about the style, story, characters, emotional torque, subtext, music and everything about Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - but what always struck me personally the most was Wonka himself, so I'll limit this review to him.
Johnny Depp is a brilliant actor. He adds an indefinable flavor to every character he portrays, and they all leave an impact long after the credits roll. When he played Wonka, though... meh. Depp's portrayal of Wonka was as an eccentric, whimsical, imaginative, one-flew-over-the-cuckoo's-nest child who never grew up and still suffers from the childhood traumas his father imposed on him. AND THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.
When Gene Wilder played Wonka, you got all that and more. He was the dreamer, the artist, the imaginative little kid who managed to weave a dreamland of his own. But on top of that, you get so much more. Beneath his paper-thin delightful rambunctiousness, he's okay with psychologically torturing children and giving no explanation afterwards. When he's singing Pure Imagination, (a song that reveres imagination and worships creativity) he is contained, almost somber, as if he were barely concealing a deep cerebral depression.
Furthermore, Depp's Wonka was the light-hearted free spirit with daddy issues, but Wilder's Wonka was fucking DARK. We see the Chocolate Factory as a double-sided, duplicitous world of wonder and mayhem: where you can unleash not only your dreams but your nightmares, too. Wonka dedicated his life to erecting the Factory as a monument to his own psyche, complete with all the illusions, gizmos, and fantasy of childhood, but also the psychotic shadow in the back of all our minds that's secretly fascinated by sadism. With Wilder, we see the ups AND downs of insanity.
With Depp, a large percentage of the film is dedicated to unearthing why he loves candy so much. But with Wilder, you don't need flashbacks to his younger days to evoke that image. Even though we never see it onscreen, you can easily picture him when he was younger as the boy who dogmatically determined to make his dreams come true no matter what the world told him otherwise.
Wilder Wonka: the boy who never grew up that discovers that making your dreams come true isn't as emotionally satisfying as he thought it would be.
Depp Wonka: an eccentric.
Film Nope.
Now here's an example of how NOT to do a remake.
Virtually everything that made the book and 1971 film great, is absent here. There's no Candy Man song, the Oompa Loompas have been dumbed down to 2000's era pop singers, Willy Wonka has been body-snatched, and a very flat performance from the cast.
I felt a small part of me die inside when one of the kids said "retard" while playing a Call of Duty-esque game.
Simply one of the worst, most unfaithful, disposable and unnecessary remakes of all time.
The book and original movie will always be classic. But this just took a huge dump all over that.