Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Release!!

[borgosi]

I wanted more from it but I did like it. Here's hoping for a director's cut on DVD.

[Uncle Roger]

I am somewhat past the age for a midnight movie, so I chose a mid-afternoon screening. Much more civilized. The theatre was not full but no more or less than any other matinees that I've attended.

Is this the greatest movie I've ever seen? No. Was it fun and entertaining? Hell, yeah. Beautiful photography, awesome sets and Collinsport actually looked like the small towns in Maine that I visited as a kid.

This is NOT an attempt to recreate the series. The TV show is very much rooted in the '60's while, at the same time, being somewhat removed from it, like the dark Brigadoon that Jonathan Frid compared it to. The film captures the flavor of the series, as the basic themes are still there. Those whose motives are selfish and evil are eventually punished. Those who act unselfishly end up much better off.

Michele Pfeiffer was my favorite with Helena Bonham Carter a close second. Depp chews quite a bit of scenery at times but so did Vincent Price. So did Jonathan Frid.

The cameos of the original actors were much too short but at least they were there. Burton never used Adam West in his Batman movies. The Christopher Lee bit seemed pointless. The Carolyn revelation seemed like a subplot that had been edited way down. And, unfortunately, during the final confrontation between Angelique and Barnabas, all I could think of was how far special effects have come since Death Becomes Her.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

It's funny how different people can react differently because a group of DS friends and I saw the film in IMAX today and we all loved it. (And OMG, in IMAX it was amazing!) In fact, I just got home from being with them, and from the time the film finished, which was about 6:20pm ET until the last of my friends and I parted for the day, which was 15 minutes ago, we were talking about how we loved such and such and hoped that if they do indeed do a sequel, such and such will be explored, and on and on. Though all of that is not to say that any of us thought the film was perfect. But then, no version of DS is! Not the original series. Not the original movies. Not the '91 series. But even with a flaw here and there (and my own personal pet peeve that we could have done without the projectile vomit), there was so much to love about the film. It definitely had more than enough of the flavor of DS for us. Though that's about all I'll say for tonight because I'm too tired to say more.    But I will definitely say more the first chance I get. 

And oh BTW - I linked to the NY Times review in the post that starts off this topic. Just how blind are you people? 

[Shadowsfan]

I went to a matinee showing of Dark Shadows today and to my delight pleasantly surprised that the film wasn't a bad comedic parody of the original series but a well written story in it's own right with some interesting twists.  The cameos left a little to be desired but other than that, Kudos to Depp/ Burton and the whole cast !

[michael c]

it's late so i'll not say much tonight but this...

i've spent the better part of a year defending this. defending it against garish makeup and campy trailers and bl**J*b gags...

but nothing prepared me for how absolutely and astonishingly stupid it was.

and the final 15 minutes could easily qualify for the dumbest in cinematic history.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Michael, I like how you promptly changed your profile image back to Victoria Winters.   

[Nancy]

I saw the film late this afternoon.  I liked it.  I will write more later.  I don't know that I would go and see it again, at least not any time soon.  There were plenty of wonderful scenes and some really stupid and pointless scenes as well.  I did not understand some creative choices, especially in regards to some of the characters.  It could have been better.  It started out with a bang and lost focus here and there at cost to building momentum. 

My understanding is that there would have been more Jonathan Frid on screen if he had been up for it.

[PennyDreadful]

What was up with

[spoiler] Angelique cracking like porcelain? [/spoiler]

Oh, I laughed at exactly one thing in the movie.  Even though the other people in the theater either gasped or were quiet

[spoiler] I laughed at the Barnabas kills the hippies scene [/spoiler]

I'm twisted like that I guess.   

Here's my lengthy response to the film...

http://pennydreadful13.livejournal.com/10406.html

[PennyDreadful]

Spoilers galore at the above link BTW. 

[jimbo]

I went to see the movie on Wednesday the 9th as I won a last minute advance screening ticket via the NY Post. It was the perfect setting to see the movie IE. packed house, polite people, tremendous sound and sharp digital images. I thought all along that the comedy was going to be the movie's downfall. However, I was wrong. The comedic aspects did not bother me as much as I had expected. It was the lack of pacing, the lack of good story telling, the underdevelopment of the 1700s storyline, the lack of scenes between BC and Josette/Vicki, and between BC and David, and between Vicki and David. Where the hell was Vicki in the battle scene? You can't pay homage at the o/s and have Julia performing a sex act on BC. A pure disgrace. Then we have the lack of good horror. Most of the violence was implied. Why? They needed to show it to have the movie taken seriously. Angelique was one dimensional. I don't think I saw any thunder/rain at Collinwood. How is that possible? It would have created a more sinister atmosphere. I expected a climatic ending. The battle between Angelique and BC was so weak something you expect in a low budget TV movie. And why is Roger in this movie? I went to see the movie again tonight in the borough I reside in. People were constantly walking in and out, constantly talking out of apparent boredom. I was very frustrated by what I was seeing. I went to an 8:00pm showing and the theatre was half full. Not a good sign. I wanted this movie to be a creative success. It turns out to be one hell of a mess. I am sorry to say but the word of mouth is going to be extremely poor. I am hoping for a big international box office just for the franchise's sake. I have no desire to see a sequel. I am very disheartened as a DS fan. We deserved better.

[ZackGolem]

I'd love to see a sequel. The end of this film went so far off the reservation I can't even imagine what a sequel would be like. They would have one insane blasphemous mess to get out of for sure! This is a very interesting and imaginative version of DS, loaded with homages to the source material. If I had a dvd of the movie, I'd be watching it again right now. It can't be everything to everybody and who cares if the script wobbles a bit?  It has the Burton whimsical vibe, which was always going to be the defining tone. It does make one wonder what another creative team might have done. The new film is short on actual horror and scares. By contrast the original two films actually are legitimately creepy and horrifying. We can only imagine how another director might have used those films as inspiration to amp of the fear factor. There's a million ways you can reinterpret a classic. To each his own!

[borgosi]

I will see it again next weekend.

[michael c]

Michael, I like how you promptly changed your profile image back to Victoria Winters.   

as opposed to magtoria evers? micki wivans? whatever the heck her name was.

i didn't see the "magatoria" compromise as "clever" or as a "merger" so much as a negation of both characters.

she wasn't victoria, the naive girl from the foundling home trying to discover her identity, and she wasn't maggie, the apple-cheeked waitress who lived with her pop in a cottage by the sea. she was just a character made up for this movie who used those two names.

heathcote was pretty. and rather charming. and had cute style.

but i didn't "relate" to her as either character. and like the rest of the "supporting cast" her screentime was too limited to really flesh her out as a character.

[michael c]

and speaking of limited screen time i couldn't believe how underused roger, and more importantly, dr. hoffman were.

when they both "departed" i was like, really, that's it???

and miller and hbc were both "good" in their roles. just hugely underdeveloped. the julia plot had the potential to be fascinating.

my impression is that half of this thing is lying on a cutting room floor.

[michael c]

AND the business of randomly turning carolyn into a werewolf in the film's final 10 minutes is the most breathtakingly cynical piece of filmaking i've ever seen...

it was like let's throw nearly 2 hours of story continuity out the window for the greedy sake of opening up the door for a werewolf-themed sequel.

so whatever. now we can spend the next 2 years speculating on who's going to play quentin.

the first 2/3's of the film were sort of harmless entertainment. but the final 1/3 was a disaster. and the carolyn nonsense was the moment i completely shut down and stopped caring.