Post by chiqui on Jul 30, 2005 12:34:55 GMT -4
I liked the movie a lot -- the visuals were stunning. However, it didn't displace the earlier movie for me. The earlier movie had a more human scale, and I'd say it was more disturbing. When the horrible things happened to the kids, you were really worried for them, because they came across as average, but bratty. In the Burton movie, the kids and parents were all caricatures to begin with, so you were rooting for their comeuppance from the beginning. This isn't to say the Burton movie wasn't any good -- it was simply a case of apples vs. oranges. It definately had more crazy humor. I loved the melting dolls, the oompa-loompa jungle scene, the dentist father inspecting the candy, then throwing it into the fire. (So THAT'S why Willy had such weirdly perfect teeth!)
But like thingamajig, I'm on the fence with the Wonka backstory. It makes sense for the character that dad should be an über-controlling dentist -- Wonka is supposed to be an obsessed, nerdy whiz kid. But the later bits about him really just wanting a family all along seemed mooshy and tacked-on. I prefer the ending of the earlier movie, which in retrospect seemed very stark and 'adult' in showing Wonka's vulnerability -- he came across as this superior and sarcastic throughout all the movie, yet at the end it's revealed he owes half of everything to his creditors. And Charlie, too, had an imperfect side.
Overall I'd call Depp's version of the character inspired, but below Gene Wilder's. In some scenes -- dare I say it? -- he looked very hot; in other scenes, like a younger version of Wes Studi (still hot.) However, in many ways his Wonka remained a cypher despite all the backstory. Sometimes he seemed as detached and superior as Wilder in that you knew he was setting up the kids for their eventual downfall; in others, he seemed personally miffed at the things they said. He had to read his 'tour spiel' from cue cards, yet ad-libbed easily enough at other times. He was kind of schizophrenic, which may have suited Burton -- it's clear that in Burton's movie the emphasis was on Wonka as a character, whereas in the earlier movie, it was all about Charlie. I do think Depp should have cut down on the collection of tics he gave the character though. Especially that wheezy little Peter Lorre laugh he gave, and the clumsiness. The third time he bumped into the glass elevator it was annoying.
I enjoyed seeing the kids coming out of the factory with their parents at the end, to face the humiliating crowd -- the blue Violet unable to stop turning backflips cracked me up, but the stretched-out Mike Teavee just looked too weird and CGI-y. They should have gotten a tall, very skinny actor to play that part. Augustus and Veruca got away comparatively lightly. I expected the dad to roar "SHUT UP!" at Veruca when she started going on again. The squirrel/garbage bit didn't work for me, even though it was true to the book. Her comeuppance was so much more dramatic in the earlier movie, where she runs around creating havoc in the golden goose room, then is flushed down the chute for being a 'rotten egg.' So much more awful than being labeled a 'bad nut.' It made more sense, too, for a spoiled rich girl to want the most valuable object Wonka has -- a goose that lays golden eggs -- rather than a pet squirrel. I was expecting all the squirrels to pile on her, Willard-style, and was irked that merely conveyed her to the hole. But I guess the squirrel-pile would have been too disturbing.
Re the melting dolls. Hilarious that Burton created that scene, then tried to 'apologise' for it later when they pass the hospital, then turned the apolgy into something even darker.
But like thingamajig, I'm on the fence with the Wonka backstory. It makes sense for the character that dad should be an über-controlling dentist -- Wonka is supposed to be an obsessed, nerdy whiz kid. But the later bits about him really just wanting a family all along seemed mooshy and tacked-on. I prefer the ending of the earlier movie, which in retrospect seemed very stark and 'adult' in showing Wonka's vulnerability -- he came across as this superior and sarcastic throughout all the movie, yet at the end it's revealed he owes half of everything to his creditors. And Charlie, too, had an imperfect side.
Overall I'd call Depp's version of the character inspired, but below Gene Wilder's. In some scenes -- dare I say it? -- he looked very hot; in other scenes, like a younger version of Wes Studi (still hot.) However, in many ways his Wonka remained a cypher despite all the backstory. Sometimes he seemed as detached and superior as Wilder in that you knew he was setting up the kids for their eventual downfall; in others, he seemed personally miffed at the things they said. He had to read his 'tour spiel' from cue cards, yet ad-libbed easily enough at other times. He was kind of schizophrenic, which may have suited Burton -- it's clear that in Burton's movie the emphasis was on Wonka as a character, whereas in the earlier movie, it was all about Charlie. I do think Depp should have cut down on the collection of tics he gave the character though. Especially that wheezy little Peter Lorre laugh he gave, and the clumsiness. The third time he bumped into the glass elevator it was annoying.
I enjoyed seeing the kids coming out of the factory with their parents at the end, to face the humiliating crowd -- the blue Violet unable to stop turning backflips cracked me up, but the stretched-out Mike Teavee just looked too weird and CGI-y. They should have gotten a tall, very skinny actor to play that part. Augustus and Veruca got away comparatively lightly. I expected the dad to roar "SHUT UP!" at Veruca when she started going on again. The squirrel/garbage bit didn't work for me, even though it was true to the book. Her comeuppance was so much more dramatic in the earlier movie, where she runs around creating havoc in the golden goose room, then is flushed down the chute for being a 'rotten egg.' So much more awful than being labeled a 'bad nut.' It made more sense, too, for a spoiled rich girl to want the most valuable object Wonka has -- a goose that lays golden eggs -- rather than a pet squirrel. I was expecting all the squirrels to pile on her, Willard-style, and was irked that merely conveyed her to the hole. But I guess the squirrel-pile would have been too disturbing.
Re the melting dolls. Hilarious that Burton created that scene, then tried to 'apologise' for it later when they pass the hospital, then turned the apolgy into something even darker.
