Reviews

First off, this is a musical, regardless of what the official word is on it. Second, most of the actors can't really sing, they are OK, but they aren't singers. The filming of it is rather spectacular in its colors and cinematography, but there seems to be nothing funny, only a bit bizarre and oddball. Not sure what they were attempting to do with this movie, but it falls flat in my opinion. I was squirming in my seat after the first 30 seconds. I admit I didn't watch the whole movie, I would not have been able to stand it. Studios need to stop making sequels, prequels, and redos of movies that have been successful. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was brilliant. This movie is not, it's not even close to the second try at it. Gene Wilder is still Willy Wonka. I was kind with giving it five stars. It deserves two.

We watched it for about 20 minutes and it was one scene after another with a combination of bad acting, dialogue, and direction. The three main characters are so clueless they couldn't even do what they set out to do. Ostensibly because they were stoned. One apparently took multiple doses of LSD. If a movie promises some kind of story, we'll struggle through until the end, hopeful of redemption. This movie promises nothing. Example: There was a little kid in a scene at the dinner table. She wasn't saying a word. Now, this can be hysterical if the child can act at all, because they can make faces and draw us in. This one looked like she was watching a slow-motion ping-pong match, looking back and forth with just a blank look on her face.

It's not funny, it's not well acted, it's not worth your time.

The title says it all. This movie drags on from one unclear moment to the next. After spending nearly two hours with it, I think it could have made an interesting short, not a feature length movie. To its credit and the actors' credit, they were fully realized and animated people. Very good character development and done very early in the film. But to what purpose? There are movies that leave open questions that one can think about and were created to good effect. In this movie, it leaves too many open questions that one can't resolve. In the end, I didn't care about the characters, I didn't care what they did or why they did it. The movie left me completely flat and disappointed I spent money and time to see it.

My two criticisms of this movie are the slow and confusing start and the very end. Ultimately the beginning makes sense, but it isn't terribly clear so bear with it for 15 minutes or so. I only looked at the IMDB rating for this movie after renting it to stream. I was ready to give up on it based on the first 10-15 minutes and those ratings. But once it gets going, it's an entertaining movie that tells a tale and has some unexpected plot twists and tension. Vernon Davis's performance was particularly striking. The character he plays is largely without dialogue, but his physical performance both athletically and just his facial expressions at times are chilling. Give it a try, I'd recommend it without hesitation.

While I know a lot of people really liked this movie, it's one major flaw is that for those who don't understand Mandarin and Cantonese have to read the subtitles. Since the action is all over the place, having to look at subtitles to be able to understand what is being said keeps you from being able to watch the movie to see what is happening. It's a terrible combination.

I found that after watching for about 45 minutes, I was exhausted and completely disinterested in watching any more of it.

They took a high-level topic of a multiverse and made a stupid movie about it. The activities were stupid. Their meeting with the IRS agent was stupid. Virtually everything in the movie was stupid. Not funny, not interesting, just frenetic, stupid, random activities.

I'd give it negative stars if that were a rating.

I'm glad we saw it for free, so I didn't waste anything but 45 minutes of my time on it.