Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
This movie is the perfect case of how expectations can effect the overall opinion drastically. Eliza, Chris and I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory using a few of our free Blingo movie tickets. I was glad that I used my free ticket for this movie, Chris and Eliza feel otherwise.
I’m not going to speak for Chris and Eliza, but I will say that they both enjoyed this movie much more than I did. However the reason that they liked it more than me was purely based on expectations that we all had prior to seeing the film.
Chris had extremely low expectations for the movie. He even said “I thought I’d hate it.”. Walking into a movie thinking that you will hate it, and then seeing something that is actually decent will make you say that you really like it. I, on the other hand, thought it was going to be great. I thought Tim Burton and Johnny Depp would take the original film, which I absolutely adore and toss it into the stratosphere visually. Although this film is visually stunning, as all Tim Burton films are, I think this movie was horrible.
I’ll say it again on its own line incase you’re simply skimming this review. I thought Charlie and Chocolate Factory was horrible. In fact, I can’t wait to never see it again.
I base my opinion of this movie solely on the fact that I thought the original was near perfect. I am not a fan of the book, in fact I never read the book. Which I think is besides the point. For movies to be loyal to the book is not often good. In the case of books that I’ve read - some movies are better off having a few slight alterations to the book just to make the movie more enjoyable. Such is the case, it seems, for Charlie and Chocolate Factory. I heard that this version is much more true to the book, and if that is true than its obvious that the alterations done for the original were much needed.
The worst part about the movie, for me, was the Oompa Loompa. No idea how to properly spell Oompa Loompa, and I do not feel like wasting the 8 seconds it would take to look it up. The songs were horrendous, which Chris can back me up on. The songs from the original are incredibly catchy, easy-to-understand and enjoyable. The songs from this, even with the great Danny Elfman pulling the strings, were practically impossible to understand. I challenge anyone that saw this movie only once to recite one of the songs.
Go see Charlie and Chocolate Factory - but go on a rainy day and use a free Blingo movie ticket.
Related sites
Recent features
The Format - Give It Up
Coheed and Cambria - The Velorium Camper II: Backend Of Forever
Leah Andreone - Break Your Fall
Song of the week
Sara Bareilles - Between the Lines
Sara Bareilles' "Between the Lines" is the Song of the Week for April 20 to 26.