Wonka (2024)

SnarkAI Score: 35/100

tldr:

In a world craving innovation, "Wonka" serves up a stale, half-baked confection. Timothée Chalamet, while easy on the eyes, falls short of the enigmatic chocolatier's legacy, delivering more of a petulant child than a master of confectionary wonders. Set against a backdrop that screams a confused homage to every popular franchise of the last two decades, this film meanders through a plot thinner than budget supermarket chocolate. The attempt to blend humour with a dark origin story leaves a taste as unsatisfying as sugar-free gum. It's a cinematic equivalent of finding a raisin in your chocolate bar - utterly disappointing.

Our Scores are generated by SnarkAI's analysis of our reviewer's writing. The tldr summary is drafted by SnarkAI based on that review. All Images are AI-generated based on the reviewer's descriptions of scenes.

A prequel no one asked for and even fewer will remember.

For some reason despite the outstanding 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and the solidly mediocre 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory someone somewhere decided it was time for the Willy Wonka origin story no one asked for.

Staring the androgynous, pixie-sized, youthful Timothée Chalamet as the titular Willy is a strange choice. He lacks the chaotic unsettling energy Depp brought to the role, let alone anything close to what Gene Wilder generated on screen.

In our first introduction to Wonka, he's a frighteningly naive, stupid child who is also generous and well-intentioned. A very different characterisation to other films where he is a near Loki-like character, a tricker with a gleam of malevolence. He won't hurt you, but he'll do a lot of things to tempt you to hurt yourself.

His ragged outfit which is a little large is very much the Artful Dodger,(even more so when he adopts his sidekick), making him seem very young. We're told Wonka's been on a sea voyage for 7 years. Chalamet's presence and performance make him perhaps 18, so he was a very young sailor. Or he's Chalamet's real age of nearly 30. Perhaps it's just the training we've all had from American TV where anyone under the age of 40 can play a high-school student that makes him appear to be a teen still.

Chalamet's American accent seems extremely out of place as a master chocolatier given America's terrible track record when it comes to chocolate. The extravagance of his creations is rather American, but people insist the chocolate also tastes good, so we must assume Wonka, like Chalamet is, at least half, French.

There's a huge influence from The Greatest Showman in this film's look. As well as Harry Potter. The opening of his store could easily be swapped with the Weasly Twin's store.

Chalamet is consistently aiming for Wilder or Depp in his performance but all I can see is Reese from Malcolm in the Middle. His outbursts are not terrifying or insane they are petulant. I think the issue is, without his Factory, without the environment of magic, wonder and danger he has created, everything Wonka says and does in the grimy London that surrounds him comes across as deranged rather than enchanting.

In a bizarre nod to the Depp film filmed in Munich and using a lot of local extras, the police are dressed in faux-German WW1 outfits rather than the British Bobbies you'd expect and certain names are very Germanic. Quite nicely, the three rival chocolatiers who confront Wonka in his red velvet code are dressed in primary colours, looking from above like they are a Roses Selection.

Wonka rescues a young black girl from a life of slavery. It's played for laughs. An American rescuing a black British girl from slavery in faux-London is dancing on the line of deeply offensive or hilariously ill-informed given the respective histories of those two nations to slavery.

Noodle & Wonka sing a silly song whilst milking a Giraffe. Chalamet's voice is a pretty high key, Alto perhaps and Noodle's is higher, which makes the duet a little shrill. The music is lazy. Rather than creating rhymes, they lean heavily on just creating words. Moodle to rhyme with Noodle. This is a pretty consistent problem throughout the movie.

The wonder and needed nonsense ramps up finally when they decide to break into the cathedral of the chocoholic monks and the corrupt priest, it's just a shame this is right at the end. If I looked as young as Chalamet, I'd not be willing to sneak into a Catholic Church. Rowan Atkinson is, naturally, outstanding as the priest.

The drug cartel metaphor is both heavy-handed and lacking in execution. Which is an impressive fumble. Keegan-Michael Key does what he can with his growing addiction but it's also played straight for laughs.

The reveal is trite and predictable. The Death by Chocolate scene lacks impact given the fact Wonka later successfully uses exactly this sort of deranged approach to dealing with people he dislikes.

Chalamet attempts a touching rendition of Pure Imagination, but he misses the mark. Take a watch of the better version.

It's unclear how Charlie later walks by this distant ruined castle on a daily basis.

The film was mediocre, which given how good many of the cast are is a little unforgivable. My footnote would be that Chalamet wasn't the actor for this role, he's not got the maniacal presence to bring the edge that Wonka needs. A stronger Wonka would have brought something this film desperately needed.