Reviews

I loved all the other films, and in particular, the Goblet of Fire. That being said, this movie was terrible. Veteran performers are made to "overact", giving this a blown up BBC Drama feel, instead of a Harry Potter film. I'm surprised that Daniel Radcliff didn't hyperventilate when making the film, he had to pant so much in reaction to his misfortune. That, accompanied with the fact that all our favorite characters had no development in this film whatsoever, makes this a very disappointing outing for the series. If the rumors are true that they're going to keep David Yates to direct the next installment, I know that I'll be waiting until after the word of mouth gets around instead of wasting my money seeing another bad film.

For anyone who's read the book or seen the original animated version, this film will be a big disappointment. Unlike other reviewers, I thought the script was filled lines that were trying to be sarcastic like a TV sitcom. Even the performances of veteran actors such as John Cleese couldn't save the dialogue. Templeton and Wilbur were the best characters, but Julia Roberts' Charlotte was extremely flat an unappealing. I would have preferred if she had tried to find her own voice instead of trying to mimic the original film. Dakota Fanning was adorable and terribly underused. There was no relationship between she and Wilbur after the webs appeared. She simply became background. The worst thing about the film was the overall message. Even my 7 year old said "Gee, I guess if you can't get a medal on that farm you just get eaten.". Yep. That's pretty much it. Outside of the lovely animation, I was terribly disappointed. And so was my family. Give this one a miss and rent the original instead. Or better yet... read the book.

While the design was spectacular, the script was altogether predictable. There are many elements of Tim Burton's former films here, from Vincent to Frankenweenie to Nightmare. It's a bit of a conglomeration of them all. Even some of the characters seem to be reincarnations of others we've seen before. All of that would have been forgiven if the script and characters weren't so stereotypical, like Joanna Lumley, Albert Finney, etc. Caroline Thompson's script is simply thin and transparent. The only thing that kept me guessing was how Vincent (Johnny Depp) would "get the girl" in the end. Danny Elfman delivers a great score and good songs, but it isn't enough to lift this film to just above average. It was entertaining, but again, predictable.