First review of the year. I would’ve seen this sooner but the timing of the release of this and a couple of other films wasn’t the best for me personally. As for how I’m approaching reviews this year compared to last year the only rule I’m setting myself is I’ll at least make sure to review any film that would end with a new ranking image, this is to avoid getting a backlog of reviews I find myself writing back to back again.
This is a fun movie mostly held back by its own nostalgia for the 1971 movie. The strengths of this movie are its own approches to source material, the cast of talented and funny actors, the songs and the cinematography. This is from the same director as the Paddington movies (Paul King) and you can see a lot of the same charm here. I have my criticisms but overall there’s more to enjoy about the film that there is to criticise… it’s just those elements are the parts I have more to talk about.
So what do I mean by held back by nostalgia for the 1971 movie. Well WB own the rights to that version and so this movie keeps a lot of the more iconic details of it such as the Oompa Loompa designs, a clear influence on Wonka’s suit and a frequent use of Pure Imagination in the score (plus a cover at the end). The reason this is a problem is I don’t think these are compatible takes on the material, any version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in this Willy Wonka’s future would be very different from the one in any of the previous films, especially considering some plot details.
But speaking of a potential version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in this Wonka’s future I like Timothée Chalamet’s performance and would happily watch an adaptation of the original story with him when he’s older. It would be interesting to see how this Willy Wonka’s past would impact his interactions with Charlie Bucket. I think that’s why I don’t like the implications he’s supposed to be the same Willy Wonka as Gene Wilder, they’re both different takes on the character and to imply they’re the same one feels like a disservice to both of them.
I still haven’t found a way to watch Breaking Point so this ranking image is still incomplete but that only bothers me, this is still more films than most people would count. With this film there’s now enough films connected to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that they could get their own ranking image but that would feel redundant at this point.
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