Dark Shadows is out in theaters and if history has taught us anything it is that at this point it is a given that every Tim Burton movie will star Johnny Depp running around in makeup that screams "LOOK HOW QUIRKY AND HANDSOME I AM!", Helena Bonham Carter will be weird, Colleen Atwood will do the costumes, Danny Elfman will do another great soundtrack, and everything will be stripes. Unfortunately for us this almost always works and we will end up spending money on it no matter what the movie is about.
Based upon the 1960's soap opera of the same name Dark Shadows is about Barnabas Collins (Depp), a 1700's wealthy and powerful playboy who just so happens to fall in love with the wrong woman and is cursed, turned into a vampire, and imprisoned by a witch with a crush who goes by the name of Angelique (Eva Green). Two hundred years later Barnabas is accidentally freed by a not-so-smart construction crew and returns home to a dying Collinwood Manor to find things have changed quite a bit. Barnabas then embarks on a quest to revitalize the remnants of both the manor and the small, dysfunctional Collins family who lives there.
Johnny Depp is really good here and quite frankly is the only reason to watch the movie even with his tendency to get carried away in these kind of roles. The film, like all Tim Burton movies, looks great with the exception of the big CGI battle at the climax. The final showdown between Barnabas and Angelique is the only issue I had with the movie. The battle seemed almost forced as if Warner Brothers stood behind writer Seth Grahame-Smith with a gun screaming for more action, causing a lot more questions than answers in the end.
Overall the movie had a great supporting cast that included Michelle Pfeiffer (Catwoman), Chloe Grace Moretz (Hit Girl), Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach), Helena Bonham Carter (Mrs. Lovett), Alice Cooper, Johnny Lee Miller, Bella Heathcote, Gulliver Mcgrath, Ray Shirley, and Christopher Lee (Saruman). It had beautiful cinematography, but a script that struggled to find the balance between horror and comedy. Not Tim Burton's best by far, but also not his worst. I give this a B.
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