It shouldn't come as a huge surprise that I'd want to see Dark Shadows.
Tim Burton and vampires? I'm in!
I walked into the movie having a slight idea what I was getting into, knowing a little bit about the soap opera from the 70's that the movie was based on.
So, let me give you the set up:
Dark Shadows centers around Barnabas Collins, a man who pissed off the wrong woman in the 17th century and was cursed to become a vampire and locked in a coffin for 200 years. In 1972 the coffin is discovered by accident and opened, and Collins returns to his ancestral home to find the world a very different place and his descendants in need of his help.
I thought this movie would be funny from the way it was advertised. The trailer spins this movie like its a comedy, and I can assure you that it is not. It is very much a drama, and does not have any of the camp that the original tv show had (it least that's how I remember the show).
The casting is good, Johnny Deep does well with what he's got and the amazing Eva Green really turns it out as the 'pissed off wrong woman', who is in fact a witch and the one who created the vampire curse.
Visually its an attractive movie, typical for Burton and will be appealing to his long term fans. The script was done by Seth Grahame Smith, the writer behind some of the most popular monster mash-ups Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (which I am currently trying to read), and I found it a bit dull and dragged in some spots. I'm not sure if this was Smith's first movie script, but it needed some pizazz that just wasn't there.
Overall the movie itself is a bit dull and drags in some spots. The visual effects are really well done, and the 'big fight scene' between Depp and Green was amazing, but it was only one of several glowing parts of a movie that feels like its missing something.
So, all you Burton fans out there, you'll probably see it anyways, so let me know what you think. Everyone else, if you're interested in this as a drama, not a comedy, its worthwhile watching.
It has some real moments that made me laugh and had me enjoyed, but Burton starts to lose himself by the end, therefore, he lost me. Could have been so much better and the only reason it is as good as it is, is because of Depp’s insane performance. Good review Ravin.
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