The tone of Dark Shadows is uneven, taking in extreme melodrama, a range of often naff (but funny) comedy, some campy gothic/horror elements, a fair dose of absurdity and a dash of gravitas and solemnity too - but actually the strange mish-mash has a consistency of its own, and what it consistently feels like is a Burton film, and more particularly a Burton/Depp outing.
It's very good, too. It's hard to explain what makes it good; so many of the preoccupations are there, but (unlike Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland - all, incidentally, like Dark Shadows, adaptations of one kind or another) it doesn't feel too much like Burton-by-the-numbers, but instead does manage to summon and maintain a shadowy, slightly pastiche-y but also sincere mood, set at the very beginning of the post-prologue 'current' (70s) action by the overhead shot as "Nights in White Satin" plays mournfully and melodiously over the top. Perhaps the simple point is just that it's very entertaining.
Good performances from all of the principals - Depp, of course, as the displaced vampire Barnabas Collins, Michelle Pfeiffer fantastic as the surviving Collins family matriarch, Eva Green suitably seductive and melodramatic, and nice turns from Chloe Grace Moretz (a star in the making, helped by her knack for picking good roles - most notably so far in (500) Days of Summer, Kick Ass, Hugo and a memorable couple of cameos in 30 Rock), Helena Bonham Carter, Jackie Earle Haley and Bella Heathcote.
(w/ Meribah - at imax)
It's very good, too. It's hard to explain what makes it good; so many of the preoccupations are there, but (unlike Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland - all, incidentally, like Dark Shadows, adaptations of one kind or another) it doesn't feel too much like Burton-by-the-numbers, but instead does manage to summon and maintain a shadowy, slightly pastiche-y but also sincere mood, set at the very beginning of the post-prologue 'current' (70s) action by the overhead shot as "Nights in White Satin" plays mournfully and melodiously over the top. Perhaps the simple point is just that it's very entertaining.
Good performances from all of the principals - Depp, of course, as the displaced vampire Barnabas Collins, Michelle Pfeiffer fantastic as the surviving Collins family matriarch, Eva Green suitably seductive and melodramatic, and nice turns from Chloe Grace Moretz (a star in the making, helped by her knack for picking good roles - most notably so far in (500) Days of Summer, Kick Ass, Hugo and a memorable couple of cameos in 30 Rock), Helena Bonham Carter, Jackie Earle Haley and Bella Heathcote.
(w/ Meribah - at imax)
