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(Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, et al.)

I went to see this yesterday with my wife and daughter aged 12+1/2.

The basics are there:

Great sets and production design
Great score
Excellent cast and performances

The downside is that Tim Burton just can’t decide if it is a camp comedy or a genuine horror, so the tone of the piece is rather choppy. It gets darker towards the end, and my daughter was quite frightened.

I don’t think my money was wasted, but it isn’t as good as Mars Attacks!

I preferred the last televisual representation.

Ben Cross as Barnabas Collins.

I've seen the original (Jonathan Frid was no pretty-boy) but it went to rampant silliness.

Just seems more of the same from tim and johnny.

http://www.cracked.com/video_18418_the-inevitable-future-tim-burton-johnny-depp-movies.html

We had a movie matinee day yesterday, watching this and The Dictator back to back.

My wife enjoyed Dark Shadows, though thought it was a bit slow in the middle. I thought it was honestly kind of poor; Burton too self-indulgent and with a kind of wandering plot which honestly seemed a bit more like several episodes of a TV show. I agree that the tone was inconsistent too. I still had fun, because I like what Burton and Depp and Elfman do, and I like Eva Green in her crazy-eyes baddie mode (oh, and the soundtrack songs were well-selected; possibly the best use of Nights in White Satin I've seen in a film), but was a bit disappointed overall.

The Dictator was awesome, though.

As a huge fan of the TV series, I've been kind of scared to watch this movie.

I'm probably going to check it out when it hits Netflix or something similar, but nothing I've heard makes me feel a need to run out and watch it.

I am so genuinely sick to the back teeth of Danny Elfman's music.


Dundun Dundun, Dundun Dundun LAla lala oohooooh ooohooooh... ad infinitum...

Kilkrazy wrote:but it isn’t as good as Mars Attacks!

Is anything really?

Not going to watch it, Burton is arguably worse than Michael Bay (and I loathe that sub-human wretch after what he did to my little kid memories) so that is saying alot, Mars Attacks! Was merely the best of a bad bunch.

Krellnus wrote:Not going to watch it, Burton is arguably worse than Michael Bay (and I loathe that sub-human wretch after what he did to my little kid memories) so that is saying alot, Mars Attacks! Was merely the best of a bad bunch.

woah there fella...

I know exactly what you mean, MGS; I found Elfman's work not to be excessive or over the top in this one. Probably in part because it was interspersed with a lot of well chosen period (1972) pop music.

Was it a brilliant piece of art? No, but it was quite hysterical at some points, and amusing throughout. The bit at the end with the daughter left me feeling a bit surprised, but overall I would say it was worth the price of the ticket, which isn't something you can say about a lot of movies these days.

MeanGreenStompa wrote:

Krellnus wrote:Not going to watch it, Burton is arguably worse than Michael Bay (and I loathe that sub-human wretch after what he did to my little kid memories) so that is saying alot, Mars Attacks! Was merely the best of a bad bunch.

woah there fella...

Really, I don't think I could even give that movie any form of consideration as being even 'ok', Tim Burton tries to be funny and dark in the same movie and it doesn't really work (It's been how long and he hasn't figured it out?), it doesn't help that a fair portion of his stuff, is a cruddy remake and/or adaptation of other peoples decent work (Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dark Shadows) thankfully he is only the producer of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Tim Burton tries to be funny and dark in the same movie and it doesn't really work

That's your opinion, one not shared by millions of movie goers.

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Nightmare Before Christmas are genuine classics.
Batman is showing its age but was really quite good at the time, and laid the groundwork (along with Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, of course) for the character getting the great treatments he's had since. Batman Returns has some flaws, but some of it is just great, particularly the villains.
Bettlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sweeney Todd and Big Fish are excellent.
Sleepy Hollow is flawed but looks great, has one of Elfman's best scores, and "Ichabod Crane, Girl Detectice" is a stroke of, if not genius, than certainly inspiration.

He does quirky stuff, which often has flaws, but he's got a lot of good movies.

Mannahnin wrote:Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Nightmare Before Christmas are genuine classics.
Batman is showing its age but was really quite good at the time, and laid the groundwork (along with Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, of course) for the character getting the great treatments he's had since. Batman Returns has some flaws, but some of it is just great, particularly the villains.

Yeah, Batman hasn't held up that well, but it's important to remember what Hollywood thought about superhero movies at the time. If nothing else, consider the two Batman films after Burton left the franchise, and how god awful they were.

Bettlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sweeney Todd and Big Fish are excellent.

Yeah, between the films above being forgotten, and people claiming Mars Attacks! was good, this thread has left me reall annoyed. I'm not a huge fan of Burton, and Dark Shadows feels like (at least) one too many trips to the well, but it seem like a lot of people have really short memories.

If it's not as good as Mars Attacks! it is not worth going to see in the theatre.

AustonT wrote:

Tim Burton tries to be funny and dark in the same movie and it doesn't really work

That's your opinion, one not shared by millions of movie goers.

Well you know what they say Auston, we're all entitled to our own opinions no matter how wrong they are

Mannahnin wrote:Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Nightmare Before Christmas are genuine classics.
Batman is showing its age but was really quite good at the time, and laid the groundwork (along with Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, of course) for the character getting the great treatments he's had since. Batman Returns has some flaws, but some of it is just great, particularly the villains.
Bettlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sweeney Todd and Big Fish are excellent.
Sleepy Hollow is flawed but looks great, has one of Elfman's best scores, and "Ichabod Crane, Girl Detectice" is a stroke of, if not genius, than certainly inspiration.

I haven't agreed with many posts this much, except for the Sleepy Hollow bit. I love that movie.

MeanGreenStompa wrote:I am so genuinely sick to the back teeth of Danny Elfman's music.


Dundun Dundun, Dundun Dundun LAla lala oohooooh ooohooooh... ad infinitum...

That's a hilariously accurate impersonation, and via text, too. Gold star!

Manchu wrote:

MeanGreenStompa wrote:I am so genuinely sick to the back teeth of Danny Elfman's music.


Dundun Dundun, Dundun Dundun LAla lala oohooooh ooohooooh... ad infinitum...

That's a hilariously accurate impersonation, and via text, too. Gold star!

Thanks, you see I liked it to begin with. I actually bought the Batman Returns soundtrack (mostly for the Siouxsie and the Banshees track, but I liked some of the Elfman music and listened to it a fair bit) then, as years went by, it didn't change, it went on and on, in every. bloody. movie...

I have listened a lot to Bear McCreary lately, especially the BSG series soundtracks, and the variety in each of those albums is vast, yet Elfman's still playing essentially the same bloody track and being paid top whack for it.

1-trick-pony.