Moroni's Review of "Dark Shadows"

I have liked Tim Burton for a long, long time.  Years ago, when I was a teen, "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" was campy and weird (as well as quotable).  "Beetlejuice" was every goth boy's dream (complete with Winona Ryder dressed in black).  By the time "Edward Scissorhands" and "Ed Wood" came out, Tim Burton had taken his craft beyond art to perfection.  This culminated in "Big Fish".  But after that, he began to fizzle.  It seemed almost as if he were becoming a parody of himself.  He was settling into the niche of "weirdness" that he had invented, mostly because people expected him to.

I guess what I'm trying to say is - to say that it is "a Tim Burton movie" doesn't carry the same weight anymore.

I feel the same way about Johnny Depp.  He was an actor's actor.  His goal always seemed to be to make himself as unrecognizable as possible - from the tortured character in Edward Scissorhands to the grinning fiend in Ed Wood.  He has always been a true artist's canvas - starting out blank and allowing expression to fill out every corner.  But lately it seems as if every character is another variation of Captain Jack Sparrow.

So that makes for a disappointing combo for Tim Burton's new movie "Dark Shadows", starring (surprise) Johnny Depp.

"Dark Shadows" is based on a TV show from the late '60s.  I, myself, was born and raised in the '70s, but I have no recollection of this TV show.  I must have been too sheltered.

Johnny Depp plays a vampire named Barnabas Collins from the 1700s.  After his lover is cursed and dies, Barnabas is turned into a vampire by an obsessed witch (played by the lovely Eva Green).  He is chained in a coffin and forced to remain for 200 years until he is accidentally dug up.  He finds the world of 1972 Maine to be bizarre, and he takes up abode with his relatives to run the family fishing business against a competing fish company - which just happens to be run by Eva Green's character.

I wanted this movie to be more interesting, but it wasn't - despite great performances by Michelle Pfieffer and Helena Bonham Carter.  To me, it just seemed as if Johnny Depp was playing the same character he played in "Sweeney Todd".

The most enjoyable part of the movie was the music - T-Rex, Moody Blues, Black Sabbath, and a wonderful cameo by Alice Cooper, who played himself (although with wrinkles digitally removed to make him look 40 years younger).

This movie would be a great movie to watch from home.  On DVD.  Not paying bucks to watch in the theatre.  Save that for "The Avengers".