The movie Wonka came out December 15, and it was disappointingly unsavory. This movie was peculiar indeed as it strayed from the taste of a traditional Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie, which was an unfortunate decision. 

Wonka is definitely a film directed towards a younger audience, whether intentional or not, as it felt really immature and contained humor suited for children. The jokes thrown throughout the film were either corny and cringe inducing, or so ludicrous that it was hard to stifle a laugh. 

It was really unfortunate to see the storyline drift from the original plot and backstory, mostly because it wasn’t greatly executed. Instead of his father being a dentist who despised sugar, Wonka’s parental figure is his mother who would occasionally make chocolate during his youth but fell ill and passed away. This is a questionable change as in the former movies Wonka’s relationship with his father is a big part of the story. In this film, Willy Wonka is also shown as a type of magician, performing magic tricks throughout the entire movie, which again is not seen in the original versions. Another thing that didn’t make much sense was that the film took place in “the best of England” where certain characters had English accents while others had American accents, but would be related to one another. The plot in general felt messy and rushed, which isn’t ideal for a movie rendition.  

Avoiding criticism of the acting, as it was mediocre at best, there were a lot of songs in the movie that, personally, felt really unnecessary. The original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a musical but only included songs when the Oompa Loompas came onto the screen, which was also a big change in this film. The Oompa Loompas are a popular character that make up a big part of the original film, so to see that role change so drastically was shocking. The songs were really childish and repetitive, dragging down the film overall. There were also way too many, placed in random scenes of the movie, hence why they felt unnecessary. 

Although there isn’t a boatload of good to say about this film, it was still filmed really well. There was a lot of eye candy, the sets and costumes beautifully done, not to mention the real sweet treats which looked delectable. All in all, this movie isn’t really worth seeing unless it’s with a younger sibling. Go in with low expectations, and maybe it won’t be that bad.