Dark Shadows

I am a Johnny Depp and Tim Burton fan girl!!!!! That being said...

The intro excited me, but the rest of the movie made me regret buying the tickets. The movie is a downward spiral of awkward acting and bad jokes.

Burton's visuals are wonderful as always. His colors and scenes make you believe you are where he wants you to be, but the dialogue is simply horrendous for most of the movie. You get rewarded by a few funny jokes for not walking out of the theater once Collins reaches the house, but otherwise are left feeling underwhelmed.

I wont spoil it with details (not that there is much to spoil), but I will say this: Leave your lofty expectations at the theater door so you don't get pushed off cloud nine only to land on 100 degree cement... barefoot.

Tim Burton is probably one of the best choices to direct a Dark Shadows movie. He's always good at making Dark, Gothic films and everyone's expecting it to be something like Sweeney Todd and Sleepy Hollow. Instead, it has a hybrid of Corpse Bride and Beetlejuice. It begins with decent gloominess but the rest is scattered with groovy soundtrack and colorful images. But that may not be the problem. It's actually pretty good at recapturing the 70's. The main problem is the plot development. It's fun but also disappointing.

It looks promising in the beginning. Tim Burton uses his campy directing style which made the intro intriguing. It get silly when Barnabas returns from his grave. Exploring the changes of his town. It's quite funny and delightful. There's a good character development in this that made it entertaining. Johnny Depp gives a delightful performance as Barnabas Collins. Eva Green is quite menacing as Angelique. Jackie Earle Haley and Helena Bonham Carter are the extra comic relief. Chloë Moretz is always good at bad girl roles.

There's a lot of fun going on, but in the end, the experience feels like something's missing. It could have been an interesting story but it ends pretty lazy. There are couple of senseless twists that aren't consistent. At least there is something good in the filmmaking. The production design is quite decent and sometimes unlikely colorful. Postmodern music are played often which made Danny Elfman's music score hard to notice. But these merits can't fix the film's storytelling.

Dark Shadows is undeniably entertaining and nothing else. There are things that could have been better. I don't think the colorful groovy look is the problem. It just needs a better ending that gives consistency to the story. People can still give it a try for its camp. There's a true vampire here that is nothing like our modern vampires. Dark Shadows is not bad. It's just unsatisfying. It has the color, life, and all but what's missing is a proper plot development.

Barnabas (Johnny Depp) is a successful man in 1770s town of Collinsport, Maine. He makes the mistake of breaking the heart of a powerful witch Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). She in turn dooms him into a vampire, and then buries him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is accidentally released into the world of 1972. His Collinwood Manor has fallen into disrepair. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better.

This has the great Gothic look of Tim Burton. He is able to have both a 70s look and an old Gothic look. However it is very difficult to root for Barnabas who is essentially a killing monster. It is not fun. And it is not funny. Although there is a monster sex scene that produced a few smiles.

I am a huge fan of the old Dark Shadows shows. I liked the old series, bloopers and all. I liked the films House of Dark Shadows and to a lesser degree Night of Dark Shadows. I liked the 1991 revival series of Dark Shadows. This new Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version has some good elements in it, like the costumes, soundtrack and special effects, but the problem here lies in the written word. The script relies too much on gags, some funny and some rather lame. The basic characters are mostly here with the exception of the melding of Maggie Evans into Victoria Winters, and the actor playing Willie Loomis does a better job with the character than did the one from the 1991 revival, who chose (or was directed) to play the role as a half-wit.(The one element I disliked about the revival). The 1970s music, cars, costumes and hairdos are spot-on and add to the comfy 1970s feel of the piece. The climax is all special effects and one "revelation" of the plot is so absurdly done here that it is (unintentionally) laughable. In all, I would say that this film may appeal more to those who never saw any of the original versions of this than the fans of them. I didn't hate this film, I just didn't love it either.

Dark Shadows offers stunning visuals, a delightfully dark atmosphere, quirky humor, and a talented cast in spite of an inconsistent story and a lack of narrative focus