Dark Shadows : Hollywood Movie Review

Dark Shadows : Hollywood Movie Review

Average Rating:  3/5

(Based on web reviews)

Stars: 2/5   Site: telegraph

Dark Shadows is far from the worst of Tim Burton’s films, but it may be the one that finally breaks his fans’ patience.This is Depp and Burton’s eighth film together, which brings them dead level with De Niro and Scorsese, although in numerical terms only.

Dark Shadows looks as beguiling as a deserted mansion on a lonely hill, but it’s every bit as empty, and permeated by an unmistakably musty niff.

Stars: 4/5   Site: asiaone

As a vampire flick, Dark Shadows seems to have crept up a few years late.While it looks a little like it's riding on the coat-tails of the Twilight movie franchise and TV series like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, it's actually a remake of creator Dan Curtis' 1960s and 1970s cult TV series.

Of course, there is still some novelty in watching its lead actor, Johnny Depp, tackle the bloodsucking role of Barnabas Collins.In the end, one gets the feeling that the story premise (and even Depp's make-up) holds more potential than the screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter).

Stars: 3/5   Site: guardian

The new film from Tim Burton does something that is rarer than you might think. It whelms you. Its effect is whelming. The film delivers precisely the satisfaction a sympathetic audience could expect from its director, not one degree above or below. 

The audience is whelmed. It's a whelmer. Tim Burton drives it straight down the middle of the anticipation fairway. You will be whelmed by the Goth style, whelmed by the CGI olde-worlde darkness of the Liverpool-in-1760 prologue, whelmed by Johnny Depp's vampire makeup and quasi-English accent and occasional funny line, and intensely, almost sensually whelmed by the fact that Helena Bonham Carter is in it. This really is a reasonably, moderately, whelmingly good film.

Stars: 3/5   Site: nydailynews

That’s obviously a soap opera season's worth of plot; screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith and Burton vet John August do yeoman’s work keeping it all straight. If Burton seems bored by the plot — as he often does in his visually spiky but sprawling projects — there’s plenty of neck-chomping, “Munsters”-ish visual jokes and trap doors to watch out for.

Yet as genially macabre as “Dark Shadows” is, it tries to serve too many masters. Initially it’s an epic valentine to the show (Victoria’s arrival, set to “Nights in White Satin,“ is indeed trance-inducing). Then it’s a vamp-out-of-water story as Barnabas gets in tune with the Me Decade. Soon it’s a gung-ho comedy as the fanged patriarch takes over. Finally it's a monster flick leading up to an effects-filled battle between a vampire, a witch, a werewolf and a ghost, as a potential corpse bride sleepwalks. Jinkies!

Through it all, however, Depp provides one of his more memorable creatures for Burton. Pfeiffer is beyond the valley of the droll, while Moretz proves to be a lip-curling natural at this stuff and Bonham-Carter gives her real-life partner Burton another wickedly demented turn. They're all creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky, and keep “Dark Shadows“ from dying a slow death.

Stars: 3/5   Site: nzherald

Dark Shadows is no different. Depp is Barnabas Collins, a vampire untombed after 200 years into 1971.It might not be his oddest paleface - his Collins is actually a picture of quirk-restraint when compared to his Willy Wonka or Mad Hatter. But the movie he's in sure keeps up the levels of zany despite him.The problem is Dark Shadows can't seem to be anything more than an edge of self-parody Tim Burton film.

Depp is amusing enough, all Max Schreck fingers, old world manners, and slight risk of combustibility when he strays into the sunlight. But the best gags for this fish-out-of-water dealing with 20th century life are already in the trailer and the rest is a middling movie Burton could do in his sleep. And here, it feels like he has.

Cast: Johnny Depp, Eva Green, Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloe Moretz, Helena Bonham Carter
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: M (horror, violence, offensive language and drug use)
Running time: 114 mins
Verdict: One for forgiving Depp-Burton fans only. 

Stars:

5 – Flawless

4 – Must Watch

3 – One Time Watch

2 – Wait for the DVD

1 – Stay Away

Like this Article ? Share it with friends or submit to your favorite sites :