Thank God it's Tuesday

It's been a long time since my last post. Thank Gelder that finn5fel manages to carry this blog for the two of us (school holidays, it is called).
Today I'm in the mood for talking about movies. Or better yet, for criticizing them. It must be because it's Tuesday.
I saw a couple of weeks ago Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, by the never-failing Tim Burton. I know, I know, O Planeta dos Macacos was awful, but, c'mon, he was forced to do the film in a way he didn't want to do it, in a very few time, and with a lot of restraints from the producers. Burton is definitely one of those few directors you can count on. Always. Like Spielberg, Allen (as in Woody), Scorsese or Coppola (if I were counting the dead, the list would be really long). His movies can be better or worse, but you know he's never going to direct a movie that can be called "bad". He's always going to release something with a minimum quantity of quality (pun not intended). Let's say... every one of his movies is worth at least of a seven out of ten (then again I'm not counting the Apes remake).
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (or C&tCF, to make finn5fel feel right at home) is a very good movie. In my opinion is not Burton's best work (that honor still falls on Ed Wood), and maybe not even one of his three best ones, but it's still a very good one.
The movie starts splendidly, and IMHO the first thirty minutes are its best part. The kid, Freddie Highmore, plays a great Charlie with incredible ease. Just like he did in Finding Neverland (also at the side of Johnny Depp). An amazing promise for the future, if he doesn't end joining Macaulay Culkin's club of Young & Promising Addicts.
About the rest of the cast, Johnny Depp's performance is brilliant, as usual, so it really doesn't come as a surprise. David Kelly is adorable as the dreamer grandfather of our
little hero. A man of that age, with that face, capable of such expressiveness... how can't he be loved? The rest of the kids are also good enough, and I can't fail to mention Noah Taylor (who started shining as an actor with his great role on Shine. Yes, yes, pun intended) and also two of the usuals in Burton's movies: his wife Helena Bonham Carter (they're married, aren't they? Now I'm not really sure) and the great presence of Christopher Lee, an actor capable of starring in the best and in the worst movies (guess in which of the two groups Attack of the Clones is placed).
The movie loses rhythm as it moves forward, and clearly the whole part in which they're inside the factory is the worst of the whole film. Maybe that's because it's boringly predictable. I know, the movie is based upon a children's book (by the great Roald Dahl, if you haven't had a childhood and didn't know), so I can't criticize that because it's part of the movie's essence: above all, this movie is for children, and that kind of things is what they need and what they like. It's awfully difficult writing for children. I remember an old book that I used to like as a child, El Pirata Garrapata. I almost died laughing every time I read it. But today, twenty years later (give or take) it's not funny. I can't get it. It's painstakingly boring. Because of that I know that I couldn't write a good book for children. All of my respect and admiration for all the professionals of children's literature.
Back to the movie, the other reason because I don't like the part within the factory is really easy: I don't like the Oompa Loompas. I can't stand them. Or, to be honest, I don't like the raised Oompa Loompa to the power of infinite. I would have preferred a lot of actors (or even CG ones, for those in the background). Variety, that's it. I've never read the book, so it's very probable that Dahl described the Oompa Loompas as persons with completely identical bodies and faces. All I'm saying is that I didn't like seeing repeated that much the face of Deep Roy (no offense meant), another of Burton's usuals now. An actor, BTW, for whose autograph many people would pay a lot, having appeared behind a mask in one of the original Star Wars movies and all. And I thought finn5fel and I were a pair of geeks...
And just the same I didn´t like the Oompa Loompa voices, all recorded by Danny Elfman himself (speaking of Tim Burton's friends). They're very... unnatural. Very synthesized. Very unlikable (to me).
Putting aside the critic in me, I would recommend this movie to every person who still has a kid inside of him (Hannibal Lecter, I'm not referring to you). And to every person who doesn't even remember what being a kid was. And to the kids. C'mon parents, take your children to the movies. They're not airing this one now, but there is a bunch of other good movies to see in family. As Queen's song did never say: thank God it's summer.