Wonka

I loved the original, hated the remake, this one sits in the middle somewhere. It's definitely a mixed bag. I googled Timothée Chalamet to see how old he was because had he been in his early twenties, I would have given him a pass for a very uninspired performance. As it is, he is 28. Old enough, with enough films under his small belt, to be better than he is.

I got the feeling he watched more Depp than Wilder, unfortunately. You could see it in the smile. Wilder was crazy good and there is no expectation for anyone to equal him, it would still be nice to be more imaginative with the role.

The storyline was a mish-mash of unfocused stereotypes and had a lack of real artistic heart. Someone sat with the script and tried to come up with what they thought an audience would want rather than what these characters and storylines demand. The story skipped around like a ball in a pinball machine. We get that it's fantasy, but at least create a world that functions on the basis of a well thought out set of rules. There was no world building here...just a snap of the fingers.

The music was the most disappointing of all, especially compared to the original songs utilized. When you have great songs like Pure Imagination, you gotta be at least good enough to sit in the same room...these new songs weren't good enough to sit outside in the hallway.

With all that said, this movie was charming in it's own way. Better than the typical superhero repeats, that's for sure.

Memories of Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka performance come to mind and whereas his 1971 version was magical and witty, this 2023 version of Wonka is a bit underwhelming to be honest...

The bad: the songs just dont excite me. They just dont. They are not terrible, but quite average. The songs in the 1971 version of Willy Wonka were superb. I can still remember them to this very day!

More bad: there is a lack of magic and surprise. The story just doesnt take me on a trip like the original did. Sorry, that I keep comparing this one to the original. Perhaps I shouldnt?

Not any good then? This movie will surely please the young kids who ofcourse are the target audience for this movie. It's a nice fantasy musical movie for sure, with a bunch of TERRIFIC English actors, who lift this movie up. Timothee Chalamet did an allright job as well.

Nothing to really dislike about it, but nothing to get really excited about it either unfortunately, for me as a grownup fan of the original Willy Wonka with Gene Wilder.

When I heard that this movie was in production I was quite scared, the reason? I thought it would be another unnecessary sequel/prequel/reboot/remake.

I was surprised that Chalamet had taken the lead role when he's been making hit after hit.

Luckily I was wrong. This movie, which is a prequel to Gene Wilder's, I don't know how but it works. The actors are very good, the direction is also good and the musical section (of which I'm not a big fan) also hits the mark.

We have nods to the work of Roald Dahl, nods to the 70s movie and a very tender adventure but also with its madness.

Although I don't think it will go down in history as a great movie, it leaves me with the good feeling that if you put your heart into it, we can have plenty of material to continue marveling at cinema.

On paper, Wonka is a cynical cash grab of an idea but in the hands of the extremely talented duo of Paul King and Simon Farnaby it becomes another heartwarming story of a kind person who just wants to make the world a better place. Even if it feels its run time more than King and Faranby's previous work it still remains thoroughly entertaining and emotionally investing.

Timothée Chalamet lacks the darker edge with this interpretation of Willy Wonka and that really doesn't matter considering what the film is going for. His Wonka is innocent to a fault, morally pure with a high level of quirk that Chalamet is able to communicate in his enunciation and movement. It's a nice change of pace compared to his usual roles.

The supporting cast is full of comedians who take it in turns stealing scenes. Hugh Grant's Oompa Loompa is an uncanny highlight who takes a while to appear and is absolutely worth the wait. Paterson Joseph excels at playing a full on pantomime villain complimented by Matt Lucas and Matthew Baynton to make for a delightfully evil trio.

Paul King's direction brings the expected whimsy with a nice level of energy to the musical numbers. The songs by Neil Hannon are generally fine, suitably entertaining in the moment without staying power so it successfully goes back to Pure Imagination a few times, with Joby Talbot's score happily sprinkling it in throughout.

How are the graphics for the new movie worse than the old movie ?

It literally makes no sense why the graphics are so bad You could of made the flying chocolate look more real

Too much singing And not enough catchy songs They should of spent more time on developing this and not having unneeded songs

I liked the oompa loompa I'm not sure why everyone was giving him a hard time

The ending was very endearing But, it's not what I wanted Focus on wonka Not noodles family situation

I wanted to give this a higher score The graphics ruined it for me There was definitely some funny parts The movie was entertaining Just the execution wasn't there.