Dark Shadows *spoilers*

[Matt]

It's beyond disjointed, has no focus and campy as hell, but you know what? Enough of it works. I liked it. It was an agreeable enough way to spend 2 hours, and yes, the best Burton since BIG FISH.

[BrianLynch]

It was boring and bland. Depp was funny at times and Eva Green was pretty and appeared to be having fun. 

Whatever goodwill the movie earns, it completely pisses away with the ending.  Depp is held captive by a statue , a ghost woman screams, and someone is suddenly a werewolf for no reason.  Blah.

[ExpendablesFan]

Also the very end is such a who gives a shit moment.

[Matt]

Whatever goodwill the movie earns, it completely pisses away with the ending.  Depp is held captive by a statue , a ghost woman screams, and someone is suddenly a werewolf for no reason.  Blah.

I've read a ton of reviews about how terrible the ending is, but I kinda of liked how it ratcheted up all the supernatural stuff at the very end. I mean, the ghost stuff was well set-up, and the werewolf thing comes out of nowhere, but it didn't really bother me.

But yeah, the very end, who gives a shit - especially since it's not entirely clear what the fuck happened (if it's her reincarnated soul, who was the ghost she was talking to the whole movie?). What the movie really needed was to get rid of that whole thread, and focus on how rehabilitating the family/family business - that was the stuff that worked the best.

[BrianLynch]

I love that the movie is so unsure of what it's supposed to be about that they blow up the business and the house and they don't even have a scene at the end that finishes that storyline.  That's what the movie was about.  But nope, they just end it.

[DerickA]

Oh man. Yeah even the tagline is about how important family was but HEY, a girl that looks like my dead girlfriend.

[Tom K.]

I suspect that when a script falls into Tim Burton's hands (even if he has a role in commissioning it), is that he intuits his way through production and zeroes in stuff that interests him and lets the other stuff kind of go by the wayside.

What I took away from this movie is that he really, seriously still has a whole lot of issues stemming from his relationship with Lisa Marie (which, given the clues throughout his work, seems to have had a hint of bondage to it).  I also suspect that his relationship with Helena Bonham-Carter is tinged with ambiguity and suspicion and perhaps some rage.  If you stack this one up next to "SWEENEY TODD," a few rather personal themes start to emerge.

In fact, I was so taken with the whole evil Lisa Marie as cracked, artificial porcelain doll thing going on during the climax, that I guess I can look the other way with regards to a certain other character's cosmetic effects (which were not quite so good).

As far as the whole family angle, and Burton's disinterest in the particulars of the Collins family saga, they're just pawns in Angelique's emotional torment of Barnabas.  But I'm still thankful that Burton had emotional investment in at least some part of this story.  It's what makes this feel more like one of his older movies than, say, "PLANET OF THE APES."

[DerickA]

That's very interesting. Didn't think of that.

[LpF]

I obviously don't know the show at all, but I felt like the more rapid plot developments stemmed from them attempting to hit a certain amount of story beats that occurred in the show over the course.  It was an entire soap opera compressed into a movie--seemingly purposefully, from the plot to the acting. Which I liked, even though it led to a certain distance which sometimes made it difficult to relate to the characters.

That Lisa Marie angle is fucking eerie, especially with this movie.

[Tom K.]

It was someone else who pointed out the "Lisa Marie guilt" thing back when CORPSE BRIDE was in theaters.  I think it was Sean?

You could take it a step further with this movie and read Angelique and Josette/Victoria as two different aspects of Lisa Marie.  The latter is the idealized one (kind of like Lisa Marie playing Ichabod Crane's angelic witch mother in SLEEPY HOLLOW and Anne Hathaway as a graceful, angelic Lisa Marie lookalike in ALICE IN WONDERLAND) with the former being the jilted, emotionally damaged possessive side (the side which would later sue Tim Burton for leaving her).  If you want to psychoanalyze Burton, he sure gives you a lot to work with.

It only seems creepy when he contrasts this by casting Helena Bonham-Carter in certain rather unflattering roles.  But art can be therapeutic like that.  If having Johnny Depp make believe murder the mother of his children in an act of passion every few films or so helps keep the peace at home, who are we to judge?

[DerickA]

Actors love playing the role of instigator, it would be fair to guess that Tim Burton wants to give her the meaty roles.

[LpF]

I doubt HBC has a problem with the roles she gets--she generally gets the best parts in a lot of ways.  But I do wonder what she thinks of all the Lisa Marie clones running around his movies being all ultra-pretty and camera-loved.

[sean]

It was someone else who pointed out the "Lisa Marie guilt" thing back when CORPSE BRIDE was in theaters.  I think it was Sean?

I don't think so, but I dig it.  It isn't that I'm sure I'd remember it if I did say it, but I didn't see Corpse Bride and don't remember thinking about it at all.

[Steve B]

It's weird.  This is my 6 year old's FAVORITE movie.  He's not a big movie fan (like my 8 year old who LOVES movies), usually he gets pretty figgity in the theater, even when seeing animated kids movies.  At home he'll usually sit about a half hour into a movie and then go off and do something else.

BUT, Dark Shadows... He didn't move or make a peep the entire film.  After seeing MIB 3 this weekend we passed the poster for Dark Shadows and he asked if we can go see that again.  He said it's his favorite movie ever.

[Dalton]

What did he think of BATTLESHIP?