Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Release!!

[Cousin_Barnabas]

it was a colossal gaffe and, like turning carolyn into a werewolf in the movies last five minutes, pretty unforgivable.

Nothing is on par with the werewolf bit.  That was possibly the worst decision in the history of the "franchise." 

[madscntst]

Tuesday's box office:  $17,401  (up 5% from yesterday)
Domestic total now: $79,662,000  (nice round number  )

http://boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?view=1day&sortdate=2012-08-07&p=.htm

[michael c]

Well, yes, the werewolf bit--and the projectile vomit--were totally unnecessary, at odds with the general tone, and pulled me out of the movie.

well put. the "magtoria" compromise left me disengaged out of the gate, but gradually i got into the film's groove and it started to grow on me...

then the carolyn "reveal", and the film's cacophonous, out of left field climax, again pulled me out of the story and forever left a sour taste in my mouth.

[IluvBarnabas]

I actually think the 'Carolyn as a werewolf' device actually makes sense. We see in the movie she pretty much keeps to herself, she hangs out in her room most of the time....when I saw it the first time I wondered if there was a reason she seemed to be a loner other than a typical teenager.

Some see Carolyn's 'secret' as bad writing, but I thought it was a clever twist. But hey that's just me.

Can't wait until this is out on DVD.

[IluvBarnabas]

I also thought that the Vicki/Maggie twist was brilliant. In the original show, Maggie was Josette's look-alike. In the revival it was Victoria who was Josette's twin. The movie borrowed from both shows to mix in both characters into one as 'Magtoria' as others on here have dubbed.

[The Doctor and K9]

I was mainly thrown by the fact that it came out of left field. Yes we had a few hints something was off, but no preparation at all for a werewolf. There were no attacks, or sightings. Carolyn had become a vampire in HODS, so I didn't have a problem with her being a werewolf as such. I just wish it had been set up more effectively.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I'll certainly concede that the way the train sequence plays in the film can look like sloppy writing. And it may very well be. But at the same time I'm willing to give them a degree of benefit of the doubt that there might have been something in the script that gave the train sequence greater clarity - but it may have been cut. I'd only charge sloppy writing if it turns out that there isn't anything in the script that might have given it greater clarity. And having learned not to blame the writing when it came to problems with the two original films, until such time as we see the script for the Depp/DS film, as with the original films, I'd tend to place the blame on possibly unfortunate editing.

89 days 21 hours 5 minutes 19 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

[Gerard]

I also thought that the Vicki/Maggie twist was brilliant. In the original show, Maggie was Josette's look-alike. In the revival it was Victoria who was Josette's twin. The movie borrowed from both shows to mix in both characters into one as 'Magtoria' as others on here have dubbed.

I thought so, too.  For me, because it was the OS, Maggie will always be Josette.  In the '91 version, she became Vicki, primarily because the story was rushed right into Barnabas.  I also thought it was rather ridiculous, in '91, to have Vicki, the exact duplicate of Josette, to go in the past to be with her duplicate and their identical appearance basically brushed away with a few comments from the other characters.  They looked exactly the same - c'mon, now.  I imagine the '04 version also had Vicki as Josette, but I don't know since I didn't see it.

In DS-'12, it returned to the original.  The name "Victoria Winters" was simply the "Clark Kent" of Maggie Evans.

Gerard

[Gerard]

I was mainly thrown by the fact that it came out of left field. Yes we had a few hints something was off, but no preparation at all for a werewolf. There were no attacks, or sightings. Carolyn had become a vampire in HODS, so I didn't have a problem with her being a werewolf as such. I just wish it had been set up more effectively.

In hindsight, there were clues; maybe there were more, but in editing they were cut.  My one friend who went with our huge gaggle to see it the first Saturday, and was always anti-DS before but loved the film, said afterwards when we were all discussing it:  "I knew there was something 'monstrous' going on with Carolyn.  They gave tons of hints."  He figured it out, including David making his snarky comment about his cousin making all those strange noises in her room, among others.

Gerard

[The Doctor and K9]

I never liked the whole 91 reincarnation thing. I thought the Barnabas story was more interesting, and more chilling when he thought Maggie was Josette reborn, and was dead wrong! He was twisted and attempted to force Maggie into the mold of what he wanted her to be. That's more interesting than the cliche lovers reunited through rebirth storyline.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

said afterwards when we were all discussing it:  "I knew there was something 'monstrous' going on with Carolyn.  They gave tons of hints."  He figured it out, including David making his snarky comment about his cousin making all those strange noises in her room, among others.

Yes. Many interpreted David's remark in a sexual context. And I really do think that Seth Grahame-Smith deliberately framed it in such a way that the minds of the audience would go there. But what he was really doing was giving the audience its first hint about Carolyn and hoping that the sexual context most in the audience would jump to would actually make the hint go over their heads until they reinterpreted it in hindsight.

89 days 21 hours 25 minutes 50 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

[Gerard]

I'll certainly concede that the way the train sequence plays in the film can look like sloppy writing. And it may very well be. But at the same time I'm willing to give them a degree of benefit of the doubt that there might have been something in the script that gave the train sequence greater clarity - but it may have been cut. I'd only charge sloppy writing if it turns out that there isn't anything in the script that might have given it greater clarity.

For me, if it was sloppy writing, so what?  There never has been sloppy writing in any version of DS, from the boob-tube to the big-screen?  We've now had three television versions and three cinematic versions of DS.  Of the former five, we could probably make a list of a whole bunch of sloppy things that would overwhelm the bandwith of this, our beloved discussion board site.  Of the latter sixth, we've found one.  And, to me, a bit of slop is one of those things that makes DS so beloved.  MPI did a whole casette/DVD of whoopsa-daisies.  As for sloppy writing, how about the massive change in Josette croaking, at first, some time around 1830 and then shifting her demise to 35 years earlier.  And don't forget the whole family chronology mess in the 1840/41 storyline (that should've also screwed up the 1897 storyline that would've screwed up, well, you get the point).  But what it does is cause us to defend how the writers slopped everything up and find a way around it.  That's fun.  That's a big part of DS.  So let's have fun, even if it was sloppy writing, trying to figure out how Maggie Evans obviously filled in her application for governess at Collinwood using her real name and then changed her name to Victoria Winters on the train trip and yet somehow no one noticed.  We've already got some credible reasons posted.  Let's get some more.  It's fun.  I'll say that Elizabeth really didn't notice, because she had more on her mind and back then, in the ancient world of the seventies, employers won't so concerned over details like that (including if they were microsoft proficient) but only if they could get the job done.  Call her Maggie, call her Vicki, just don't call her late for supper and make sure she could educate those disturbed children and get them to memorize who served on President Nixon's cabinet.

Gerard

[michael c]

what one can expect, and tolerate, from a daily, shot live, on the cheap soap opera from 45 years ago and what's acceptable in a 100+ million dollar movie five years in development are two totally different things.

if the deleted scenes and extras on the blue-ray help make sense of it than good. but otherwise it's just sloppy writing.


and as to whether or not there were "clues" in retrospect as to carolyn's being a werewolf is somewhat beside the point. it meant nothing to the plot of the movie. it was just plain stupid.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Well... this would be fine.  I think the one "implausibility" that some of us seem to be tripping over is that she looked up and saw that poster/ad before calling herself Victoria Winters.  One way to look at that (and the way I looked at it when I first saw the scene) would be that she thought of her new name right when she saw the poster, and changed her name right there on the spot.  But that would not fit with her having already applied for the job. 

Hmmm...  I definitely can see the point and I know why people are getting hung up, but I guess my brain just rationalized it as the poster reminding her of a plan she hatched earlier. 

and as to whether or not there were "clues" in retrospect as to carolyn's being a werewolf is somewhat beside the point. it meant nothing to the plot of the movie. it was just plain stupid.

THIS.


As I type, they are playing that T. Rex song on the radio...  I don't know what to think when I hear it anymore.   

[madscntst]

The Wed. BO #'s are in for DS:  $13,439  (ack, that's quite a huge drop, even though it often drops on Wed.  )   The domestic total is now: $79,675,439. 

http://www.boxoffice.com/statistics/movies/dark-shadows-2012

Very few other numbers seem to be up quite yet.