Tim Burton's Dark Shadows - Part 2

[Drz]

Dark Shadows review

Dark Shadows by Tim Burton is his take on an old soap opera franchise of the same name, updating it to today’s audience and in an actual film format instead of a TV series for HBO/AMC or so. What you receive is a mixture of serious darkness and ridiculous campiness that sometimes makes the more serious scenes harder to believe, so it’s all really in your own suspension of disbelief, can you laugh at this stuff, are you supposed to cheer for the nastiness of it all or shudder in fear?

The premise of the movie is family in gothic horror, with its protagonist Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) returning to the world after 200 years of imprisonment from the witch Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), a woman who was torn by her desire of being loved by the noble Barnabas, he cursed him, murdered his one true love and has been haunting the Collins family ever since. Despite being a vampire, Barnabas has a huge emotional value towards his family, because his father always taught him that a family is the most valuable thing in the world.

The Collins family consists of 4 remaining family members and their servant Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley), House Nanny Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote) who also happens to look like Barnabas’ true love from 2 decades ago & their psychiatric Doctor Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter). The head of the family is Elizabeth Collins (Michelle Pfeiffer), her 15 year old rebellious daughter Carolyn (Chloë Grace Moretz), the 1-sided character who loves money, Roger Collins (Johnny Lee Miller), David, the son of Roger who deals with the loss of his mother and claiming to be talking with her ghost all these years. These are all non-ordinary folks, expect perhaps Rogers, who just fills the *****e father stereotype, but it’s very fitting that Collins and their servants are all pretty extreme people, not your everyday people, but rather weirdly obsessed with their own things, now added with the fact the legendary Barnabas has returned and happens to be a vampire from all the folklore myths, it adds nice mixture to it all.

It’s very Tim Burton-esque to see him tangle on this material, not only do you got the obvious gothic horror elements, but you also have those non-normal characters that you really just want to see break down and investigated, like the psyches’ of Batman & the Joker, or Ed Wood’s unquestionable enthusiasm on film making. However while the movie’s 1st act has a slow build up, the 2nd act is the very best part on the movie as we see the Collins family in interaction, but at the end of the day it is the direction the movie takes with its 3rd act that simply ruins the possibility of this being something great, but leaves a disappointing taste where you likely will simply find this movie mediocre/decent/good. So many random elements happen on the 3rd with no proper build up almost, and it all really just feels anti-climactic, especially with such a stellar cast on this film. Johnny Depp’s charisma with Eva Green & Michelle Pfeiffer was the highlight for me, not to mention Chloë is really growing into a young beautiful woman, with her acting just getting better as the years come.

Danny Elfman once again also unites with Tim Burton, but for me the very memorable soundtrack to the movie is all the 70s music they used on this film from Barry White to T.Rex to Alice Cooper music itself. It’s very enjoyable added element to the campiness of the movie as Barnabas rediscovers the earth he inhabits.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

Agreed on your review Drz...

Like most Tim Burton movies this will divide people, but I guess it did exactly what it needed to do for me.

I loved the shifting tone and the 3rd act, while messy, was too much fun to hate.

The only real criticism I'd have for the movie is that the story could have been tighter. It never really felt like we were working towards an end goal... but simply meandering over certain moments.

It's a shame more weren't willing to give it a chance... but the much MUCH worse Alice in Wonderland gets over a billion at the box office.

 

[CConn]

How I'd rank Burton's movies:

1. Ed Wood
2. Sweeney Todd
3. Big Fish
4. Edward Scissorhands
5. Beetlejuice
6. Batman
7. Batman Returns
8. Sleepy Hollow

I did not care for the others. I hope Dark Shadows joins that list because I loved the show. But the trailer made it look like an uneven campy mess and that's what all the reviews say. I am worried.

Hmm...

1. Ed Wood
2. Edward Scissorhands
3. Batman Returns
4. Batman
5. Big Fish
6. Sweeney Todd
7. Sleepy Hollow
8. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
9. Beetlejuice
10. PeeWee's Big Aventure

With Mars Attacks!, Planet of the Apes, and Alice being the only three I don't like.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

Tim Burton falls off stage in Japan...

[YT]1hxKNqlhoxw[/YT]

 

[Wolfwood]

Damn, that guy is on top of his job. He deserves a raise.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

Estimated $28.8 million opening

As expected, Dark Shadows couldn't hold a candle to The Avengers, though its estimated $28.8 million opening is still a bit of a disappointment. Among recent Johnny Depp and Tim Burton collaborations, that's a tiny fraction of Alice in Wonderland's $116.1 million and around half of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's $56.2 million. Those were both colorful, fun, recognizable properties, and Dark Shadows is much closer to Sweeney Todd and Sleepy Hollow. It significantly out-grossed Sweeney Todd ($9.3 million at 1,249 locations) but was a bit off from Sleepy Hollow ($30.1 million).

Dark Shadows's underwhelming debut can be attributed to a handful of factors, not least of which was the tough release date. The second weekend of May is a notoriously difficult time to open a movie, as Warner Bros. experienced with Poseidon in 2006 ($22.2 million) and Speed Racer in 2008 ($18.6 million). The challenge was magnified this year thanks to The Avengers, which is outperforming even the most bullish pre-release forecasts.

It doesn't help that vampires who don't sparkle (read: aren't in the Twilight franchise) don't tend to be overly successful at the box office, and the Dark Shadows soap opera upon which the movie is based isn't nearly as popular as other TV source material. Perhaps more importantly, though, this mediocre opening seems to suggest that Johnny Depp may be losing some of his mojo thanks to disappointing recent movies like Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and The Tourist. Because of this, a movie can't be sold on Depp alone, and the fish-out-of-water comedy and outlandish sex scenes portrayed in the movie's marketing weren't enough to seal the deal for most people.

They pretty much nailed why it didn't do so well... hopefully overseas saves it.

 

[Drz]

Agreed on your review Drz...

Like most Tim Burton movies this will divide people, but I guess it did exactly what it needed to do for me.

I loved the shifting tone and the 3rd act, while messy, was too much fun to hate.

The only real criticism I'd have for the movie is that the story could have been tighter. It never really felt like we were working towards an end goal... but simply meandering over certain moments.

It's a shame more weren't willing to give it a chance... but the much MUCH worse Alice in Wonderland gets over a billion at the box office.

Yeah the movie truly needed a proper conclusion, i heard the script was suppose to adapt the course of the entire Dark Shadows tv history, and thats rather bad lol.

 

[Marx]

I finally saw this today. The trailers absolutely did not do this movie justice.

 

[jacobed]

I thought this movie was pretty awful but I will say its nothing like the trailers make it out to be. There are definitely not funny fish our of water jokes actually most of them weren't funny but the trailer makes it look like that's all the movie is when its not at all

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

I finally saw this today. The trailers absolutely did not do this movie justice.

So how much did you like it Marx?

 

[Marx]

So how much did you like it Marx?

I thought it was good. It's not "one of the best movies I've ever seen", but it was ok. The story could've used some work but it was nice to see the movie being nothing like the "comedic" trailers suggested.

Michelle was great

 

[rayc1971]

I thought this movie was pretty awful but I will say its nothing like the trailers make it out to be. There are definitely not funny fish our of water jokes actually most of them weren't funny but the trailer makes it look like that's all the movie is when its not at all

i think the trailer making it look like a comedy really hurt it.where is trump someone should be fired for that marketing campaign

 

[Homer J. Fong]

I don't think the marketing was that inaccurate. I actually think it was somehow inaccurate and accurate at the same time. It's a strange movie; it's not as much a campy send-up and culture-clash comedy as the trailers and TV spots indicated, but that is there. As are the more soap opera elements and dysfunctional family elements. It's an odd combination of things, and I wouldn't know how to sell it either, other than as a Tim Burton movie, but even still, how do you put a trailer together? Selling it as just an operatic horror movie would have made people angrier because that's not what one should expect, that's not what this is. Opening it a week after The Avengers was probably not a wise movie, but I wouldn't have positioned it for a Halloween release either, because that too would have made people expect more of a horror movie.

 

[AnneFan]

I'll be seeing this soon. Looking forward to it. A few of my friends have seen it and liked it, which is good to hear.

 

[marvelrobbins]

It's already doing better better overseas.It has a worldwide gross of 65 Million.

I really like It and this has one of worst marketing I have seen of a movie.Totally
misrepsents the final film.

 

[Gold Samurai]

I don't think the marketing was that inaccurate. I actually think it was somehow inaccurate and accurate at the same time.

i think the trailer making it look like a comedy really hurt it.where is trump someone should be fired for that marketing campaign

John Carter
Dark Shadows

Not a good year to be a marketing exec

 

[nightwing06]

Tim Burton's Dark Shadows opens strong introducing us to Barnabas Collins(Johnny Depp) scion of a wealthy fishing trade family.His affair with a witch Angelique Bouchard(Eva Green), and love for
Josette DuPres(Bella Heathcote ) sets up a love triangle which ends with him being cursed as a vampire
Buried by the townsfolk and dug up in 1972 the fun begins......well sort of.

Depp is great as usual.His Barnabas is not all bad true he has to satisfy his need for blood but he also cares for his family.Depp delivers his one liners with such eloquence and sharp disdain,it was fun just listening to him.His reactions to the sight of troll dolls and other fads of the 70's are also quite funny.I enjoyed the sexy banter between him and Green.
Tim Burton once again provides a stunning gothic look with splashes of color i have grown to love about his films.

But as a whole the film suffers from to many underdeveloped characters even though
Michelle Pfeiffer and Chloë Grace Moretz do their best with what they are given.
Another bad factor the schizophrenic path the film takes,is it a fish out of water comedy,or straight horror film? The mixing of the two just didnt work for me,and its a mix that just ends up lackluster.
If the film had maintained its focus on the introduction which pulled me in and stayed on the path of fish out of water comedy i would have enjoyed it more.

Scale of 1-10 a 6½

 

[DACrowe]

I finally saw Dark Shadows. As both a fan of the original TV series (saw it rerun in the 1990s, I'm not THAT old ) and as a fan of Tim Burton, I've been looking forward to this movie since it's announcement. In short, I've really wanted to like this movie because it seemed like a perfect match of material and director (and lead actor). So, despite the mixed reviews and disappointing trailer I stepped in with cautious hopes....

I really think the movie begins incredibly strong. The first 15 minutes or so are pitch-perfect. The streamlined prologue of how Barnabas became a vampire, his relationship with Angelique and the sad, doomed fate of Jossette was expertly done. Even more I liked Victoria Winters's introduction in her trek to Collinswood. The use of Nights of Dark Satin to an understated opening credits as she travels to the grey North creates a moodiness that is perfect. There is some restrained humor about hippies and Carolyn being a wild child, but the whole opening right up to Barnabas seeing a McDonald's sign keeps the humor as a dry undercurrent to the gothic sensibilities of the story. It is a 2012 reimagining of the show and it works. They do a great job of setting Victoria up and seeing her affected by the ghost of Jossette. And then....it all falls apart.

The movie has a lot that works for it. Johnny Depp is pitch-perfect as Barnabas Collins. He nails the character effortlessly and pays true homage to Jonathan Frid's performance and memory. The rest of the cast is also quite strong with special standouts being Eva Green deliciously ripping into the always scene-stealing Angelique and Chloe Grace Moretz as the gloomy, but intriguing brat-heiress. Also, the sets and costumes are superb. The costumes evoke the feeling of late 1960s and early 1970s beautifully. While they all have Burton touches, none of them overplay their hands. The sets and images of breaking waves on cliffs evokes the haunting atmosphere of the original show. However, much like Depp's Barnabas, they are ill-served.

This movie is incredibly schizophrenic and is never sure if it wants to be a gothic fairy tale, a campy parody of the original TV series or a hodgepodge of nostalgic relics from the 1970s. Burton obviously is very nostalgic from this period of his youth. Therefore he is tossing in everything he associates with that period in his life when he watched Dark Shadows. Sometimes it works marvelously, see again Nights of Dark Satin, but often it is just mystifying and distracting from the narrative. I'm talking about a completely random cameo by Alice Cooper that serves no purpose other than to have Alice Cooper there. The use of Barry White music and many other cues that are jarring.

The other is the screenplay. I've read both of SGS's books when they were released (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) and found them amusing and fun. But he clearly has no understanding of what Dark Shadows is. While the first 15 minutes are so strong, he infuses the story with his trademark overuse of camp and bemused meta-irony. He treats the material like schlock and that's what it becomes. Burton is best served with a strong script and this one veers from goofy farce to horror in uneven fashion. We see Alice Cooper in one scene and in the next Barnabas is mercilessly killing off a major character (Dr. Hoffman). Vicky who was central at setting up the plot at the beginning of the movie and is supposedly important given she is 1/3 of the love-triangle at the center of the story, disappears for huge swaths of time and her love affair with Barnabas is never properly developed.

Also SGS, nor anybody else it would seem, had any clue on how to end the story. I'm not against turning Carolyn into a werewolf. She was turned into a vampire on the show by Barnabas (far more creepy and incestuous than this) and there were other characters who were werewolves on the show. But for it to just appear in the Third Act out of nowhere is just jarring and unstatisfying. Never mind, one of the many Schumaucher-esque groaners of the movie going with it. The final fight with Angelique turning into a CGI nightmare of the house coming alive is simply so underwhelming. And then the resolution with Victoria doesn't satisfy either, because there was no development to get to that point.

I was entertained throughout the movie and I loved Depp as Barnabas. It has a number of individual scenes that work (and a number that don't). It also is visual eye-candy. So, I can't say that I hated this movie. But it could have been so much more.

6/10

P.S. I like how they incorporated one of the main background themes from the show into the movie (it's the first thing you hear over the opening logo), but why not the main theme from the series at some point? Or most especially Jossette's theme from her music box? It was crucial on the show and perhaps if we'd seen Barnabas give it to Jossette in the prologue and then later Vicky in the movie, some of their tragic romance would have resonated. It certainly would have done more to bring out that gothic relationship than Alice Cooper did. Just a thought.

 

[Octoberist]

While I wasn't bored, I was shocked how..unfocused the movie was. By the second act, characters disappeared, plots and arcs shift back and forth awkwardly. I mean, I wish someone got another pass on the script because there were some funny and great moments here, but it was just a mess in the end.

And Burton...my God, as a fan, I haven't liked a Burton filmed consistently as of late. I think Big Fish and Sweeney Todd were fine, but everything else was 'by the numbers'. The raw energy he once had is all but gone, but his films now just kinda..meanders. They all look pretty but it's all window dressing.

I did like Eva Green. She was the best part of the film, hands down. Too bad that the script was just so jumbled around despite the potential of it all, and what a damn shame.

5/10

 

[Octoberist]

I thought it was good. It's not "one of the best movies I've ever seen", but it was ok. The story could've used some work but it was nice to see the movie being nothing like the "comedic" trailers suggested.

Michelle was great

Sadly, I wish Michelle did more. She was barely in the film.

 

[Octoberist]

And they never really explained why Depp's character didn't like Eva's character. I understand he doesn't, but they never explained why. It feels like the script is just telling the audience "We don't need to explain anything. It happened in the soap opera! Go with it!"

 

[Doctor Jones]

Saw this, and it meandered right until Barnabas returned. It needed more liveliness and Burton quirk. The cinematography, while beautiful, could have contributed more to the life of the film which it lacked. I liked Depp and Green. Especially Green... my God help me that woman.

But it did feel uneven and unsatisfying in what it was trying to be. Would it have worked if it was more creepy and serious or with more wit and charm and that Burton quirk that I love? Could have been either, but the tonal issue didn't allow it to be.

Things just needed to be more interesting.

 

[DACrowe]

Saw this, and it meandered right until Barnabas returned. It needed more liveliness and Burton quirk. The cinematography, while beautiful, could have contributed more to the life of the film which it lacked. I liked Depp and Green. Especially Green... my God help me that woman.

But it did feel uneven and unsatisfying in what it was trying to be. Would it have worked if it was more creepy and serious or with more wit and charm and that Burton quirk that I love? Could have been either, but the tonal issue didn't allow it to be.

Things just needed to be more interesting.

Really? I thought the first 30 minutes were focused up and through Barnabas's return. It was funny, but not campy. And it was gothic and moody with the prologue of Josette dying and Barnabas being buried. Vicky meeting the family to White Satins. But as soon as the plot kicks in after he reestablishes himself as a Collins (right around the time the word "Chevy" is mentioned) the narrative completely loses itself in the weeds and ever increasing camp.

I agree it should have been darker or creepier. At least more gothic like the first half hour. I really think SGS dropped the ball big time on the film. It was his first attempt at writing something that shouldn't have been camp or purely silly and he failed. But was Burton asleep at the wheel in not asking for more rewrites? Ugh. Such a wasted opportunity with this cast, cinematography, sets and source material. All that's missing is a good movie to tie it all together. Oh well.

 

[Octoberist]

The movie lacked any edge. Beetlejuice has more edge than Dark Shadows just in ts absurd tone.

 

[Wesley Dodds]

I went to see this last night. I can't recall the last time i had such a thoroughly irritating cinematic experience.
Subplots are introduced and go nowhere, most of the films "characters" are barely fleshed out and seem to disappear for long periods of the film and the ending... My god, where was it? This movie just... stops. All of the loose ends from the (rushed and uneven) finale are just left hanging by the time the credits roll.

Oh! This film also has, imo, the most ****ing ridiculous WTF moment in recent movie history... Surely, anyone else who's seen it knows what I'm talking about. It involves Chloe Moretz and it was so random, so unbelievably bad, my eyes almost popped outta my head.

2/5