Babydoll 1251

I had very high hopes from the trailer, from months ago. I have to say overall, it fell a bit flat on me. The lead actor is very well cast but lacks leading man quality. He has the charm of a child, and an endearing quality but just not someone who really pulls you in emotively. Hugh Grant was a tad funny. The rest of the cast quite lacklustre or unfavourable for me I'm afraid. Very cinematically pleasing on the eye, and though at times a musical, a relaxing and unhectic watch, especially for a kids movie. The script however was slow and at times really bland. I think they could have done a lot more with the character development especially of the Oompa Loompa. Definitely not targeted towards younger children as advertised. However it was nice to see a movie with my child that was acceptable (not ideal) for family viewing, with no particular agenda or propaganda within and not alot to have to cover the kids eyes for, unlike in the recent Trolls movie where surprisingly there were quite a few very crude in appropriate jokes. Wonka comprises a wonderful lead actor who really does put you in mind of a young Gene Wilder. The storyline was at times a VERY slow but the visuals were quite enthralling although given the techonology available, you would think they could make something to do with Wonka into something very very spectacular, which is not what happened here. I was quite moved by the subtle but very present nods to the original 1970's film (the way he steps back up two stairs as he goes down, dance routine, and the touching rendition of 'Pure Imagination' with a whole new spin of emotion). I liked the addition of the rather cynical and stern oompa loompa played by Hugh Grant, the sternness expressed to an unwavering and ever pleasant Wonka, at times was quite hilarious! As far as criticisms there are quite a few. The 'Scrub Scrub' song was absolutely tedious and pointless, the musical parts overall seemed very lazy and fell flat for me, definitely no stand out new songs. I would say that at times there was a bit of glaringly obvious virtue signalling in that they were VERY clearly going for a massively diverse cast, which is great of course, but sometimes when this is done to an extreme it can be a bit like they're trying too hard to be politically correct and can end up looking like a desperate bid for relevance. One further critique as I say earlier would be that I'm not entirely sure who the exact target audience is, as the storyline, whilst acceptable for most ages, at times bordered on a quite dark, with threats to kill followed through, a mothers death, a very abusive woman kicking a girl, two people being orphaned and some drawn out lacklustre scenes of corrupt deals between evil conspirators. Luckily alot of the script (including the death of a mom) was written in a way that could go over little heads. Luckily this film was very enjoyable overall. A worthy watch and a nice change from the usual flow of new releases that attract kids. As an adult this is a pleasant 'kids film' to watch, even if the target audience is not necessarily that young.