The Weekend

Amybear and I had a good weekend. We shopped. We went to the Cecil County Fair and watched a friend of mine compete in the demolition derby. We saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Saturday and went with my brother to see The Fantastic Four on Sunday.

Charlie was a good film. It was probably truer to the book than the Gene Wilder version, but I can't help but have a warm spot in my heart for the Wilder version too. My one criticism of the new movie was the tone. The books and earlier movie always seemed bright and wondrous to me as opposed to this film which often seemed dark and weird. There is also the allegation that Willy planned for these kids to meet their horrible fates. I liked the new musical numbers, but Amy missed the older ones.

I liked Fantastic Four too. There has been a lot of criticism that it doesn't have the depth of Batman or Spiderman, but that isn't a criticism that I find particularly valid. This is a movie about a team of superheros and it is trying to tell the story of five people instead of just one or two. You have to sacrifice some depth to do this. Although honestly, the Fantastic Four don't have that much depth to start out with.

This movie is pretty comparable to the first X-Men film in quality. My brother's biggest criticism is that they got Victor Von Doom's origin story all wrong. In the original comics Von Doom was scientific genius descended from Gypsy magicians. He had both magical powers and technological powers from an armored battlesuit. This movie empowers Doom in a manner closer to his Ultimate Fantastic Four origin.

UPDATE: For those of you who haven't read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, there is a really nice hardcover version out with both of the Charlie books for only $10.