Charlie and the Tim Burton Factory

If you’re a 16 year old megaplex usher, be prepared for some cleanup.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is high-gloss production design porn. Every single production designer, set builder and amateur theater stage decorator in America is going to have two hours of drool to mop up after they see this.

Too bad the movie is mostly a snore, a forgettable take on a story that had so much more energy in the Gene Wilder version. Outside of a few moments of visual wit and some cleverly bizarre one-liners from Depp, it’s a gloriously designed but ultimately empty facade of a movie.

If you're a Burton maniac and have to see everything he puts his hands on, then you might be content enough with the visuals, but between the languid, overly expository pacing, the episodic structure and the trite, sentimental moralism, there's enough to dislike in this movie that flashy sets probably won't be enough.

My full review will be up at RELEVANT early next week.