I sawthis over the weekend (Saturday I think) with another friend, Liam (his blog's here), and I'm less than impressed. As a huge fan of the original, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I was constantly looking for callbacks and references to it throughout the movie. Yeah, there were some (the tune the Oompa Loompa played on the flute, Willy walking back up three steps after going down three), but honestly that's the only part of the movie I really enjoyed. I'd start a paragraph here detailing what I liked about the movie, but there honestly isn't much so it's just not worth making one. And on that note, I really didn't like Wonka that much. I understand the appeal and the plot made sense, but it wasn't portrayed in a very entertaining or engaging way at all. First up: the acting. Namely, Timothee Chalamet. I don't get why people like this guy as an actor. Is it the face? I genuinely hope that he's only popular because people think he's cute, because he's not a good actor. I saw Dune a couple months ago, and thought he was either under or over acting, and he does the same thing here as Willy Wonka. It's like he can't decide whether he wants to be Gene Wilder's version of the character or his own. During the songs, he barely expresses himself during the songs, and focuses more on movement than facial expression, which I'd argue is equally as important. Which brings me to my next point: the music. It seems like, outside of Disney, musicals are a dying trend among theater productions in general. In the early-to-mid 20th century, it felt like musicals were everywhere. Because of this, the songs in these musicals are well-thought-out and easily recognizable, and help to express either a character or group of characters' thoughts, or explain certain plot points and move the story along. But there's something with newer musicals, and music in general, that I've noticed. Music now feels like it's manufactured to be catchy rather than truly expressive of something. People love catchy songs, and I don't blame them. They're catchy. But being catchy should never be the driving force behind a song if you want it to last a while. Think Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Nothing in that song is inherently catchy, but it's hard to deny its impact and longevity over the years because it doesn't focus on being catchy. The biggest culprit of this is in the song "Scrub Scrub" in Wonka. It's got a steady tempo that doesn't change much, and it's easy to keep a beat with it. This makes the song less focused on its meaning and expression of the characters, and more focused on keeping the viewer engaged. It's a mediocre movie backed up by bland, uninspired music that retains none of the personality of the original. 4/10
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