I loved the original, hated the remake, this one sits in the middle somewhere. It's definitely a mixed bag. I googled Timothée Chalamet to see how old he was because had he been in his early twenties, I would have given him a pass for a very uninspired performance. As it is, he is 28. Old enough, with enough films under his small belt, to be better than he is.
I got the feeling he watched more Depp than Wilder, unfortunately. You could see it in the smile. Wilder was crazy good and there is no expectation for anyone to equal him, it would still be nice to be more imaginative with the role.
The storyline was a mish-mash of unfocused stereotypes and had a lack of real artistic heart. Someone sat with the script and tried to come up with what they thought an audience would want rather than what these characters and storylines demand. The story skipped around like a ball in a pinball machine. We get that it's fantasy, but at least create a world that functions on the basis of a well thought out set of rules. There was no world building here...just a snap of the fingers.
The music was the most disappointing of all, especially compared to the original songs utilized. When you have great songs like Pure Imagination, you gotta be at least good enough to sit in the same room...these new songs weren't good enough to sit outside in the hallway.
With all that said, this movie was charming in it's own way. Better than the typical superhero repeats, that's for sure.
