Dark Shadows

Remember when Tim Burton had some indie cred, and his emo movies were something new that brought credibility and something different to the movies.  Remember seeing his remake of Planet of the Apes, how he had them wear those stupid hats, just how upset you got seeing it, and wishing things could go back to the way they were.  It hasn't.  You would think a movie based on a sixties vampire soap opera would be right up his alley.  And maybe it was.  And Burton just had so many ideas for his new movie; he couldn't bear cutting any of them out.  That is probably what happened to Tim Burton's most recent passion project. Dark Shadows suffers under the weight of having too many ideas with no idea how to bring them together.

This is the eighth time Johnny Depp and Tim Burton have teamed up and by now there really is nothing left the duo can do to surprise their audience.  Burton goes for a Gothic look while trying to provide a balance of horror and comedy; while Depp rocks a ridiculous wardrobe and a funny accent.  Nothing we haven't seen these two try before.  And just as predictable is Burton shifting his tone as often as he changes his scenes.

No doubt feeling the need to pay homage to the series, Burton tries to include too much with his story and doesn't give enough attention to any of his many subplots.  He does fine with the first act of the movie, and setting up the story.  Even once we get to 1972 the movie has some solid jokes delivered by Depp who always does so well as the fish out of water.  To no surprise Depp was the one of the few bright spots of the movie, and did very well in the roll, but nothing we hadn't seen countless times before.  The movie gets lost in itself once we meet the rest of the family.

While it looks like a large cast really there are only two players in this production.  Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins and his immortal rival the witch, Angelique Bouchard, played by Eva Green.  Their lust/hate relationship is the main plot line throughout the movie and the only one given any real attention.  Both characters are fully realized and play well off each other.  The only other character that possesses any semblance of depth is Michelle Pfeiffer's matriarchal, Elizabeth Stollard Collins.  All the other characters seem thrown into the mix just to honor the source material of the sixties soap opera.  It wouldn't surprise me if Alice Cooper in a brief cameo had more lines than the rest of the family including a completely underused Chloe Moretz and Jonny Lee Miller who probably should have just been written out of the story entirely to better develop the young son played by Gulliver McGrath.  Even Burton's muse Helena Bonham Carter couldn't gather any real screen time as she would appear briefly as the live-in psychologist and then be completely forgotten about for chunks as a time.

Not only that, but the movie flip flops from comedy to horror at the drop of a hat.  Becoming lighthearted and cheery underscored by some classic hits from the early seventies and then almost immediately shifting gears to murder and death.  While the Burton look to the movie helps reflect whatever mood the audience should feel he shifts too many times, and doesn't do great with either the comedy or the horror.

The movie really loses its momentum by introducing too many characters with too many story lines.  Burton seemed to have a very distinct idea of how he wanted the movie to begin and end but no real road map on how to get there.  By the end of the movie you could almost see Burton throwing his hands in the air and just tossing in ideas that he meant to build towards but never actually mentioned.  And just as I'm sure the production crew was getting frustrated with their ending, the audience did as well, with people in the screening walking out at the end already knowing how the movie was going to end but not caring to see it themselves.  D