RYAN: I’d like to welcome my brother, the marvelous Kevin Sucher, to the site! I’m so excited you were able to attend this screening and review with me.
KEVIN: I’m happy to help out and I was looking forward to seeing this one in particular.
RYAN: We just walked out of the new Tim Burton adaptation of the late 60s/early 70s TV soap opera Dark Shadows and we’re kind of split Burton fans. I like him more than you do. And to that end, I did like his twist on this story.
KEVIN: It was very interesting. I like the modern spin that he put on it. It had a cute sense of humor. And I like the way he recreated the 70s for it.
RYAN: That is one of the film’s greatest strengths. It’s a very heightened version of the 70s and true to the period with hair, makeup, costumes, music… It was well captured. And the script had a lot of good lines. But onto the most important of topics – Johnny D.
KEVIN: Johnny Depp is brilliant. He’s one of my favorite character actors. I used to get aggravated that he wouldn’t do anything serious but after seeing him so many roles, wearing loads of makeup, he is being true to the art of acting – pretending to be someone radically different.
RYAN: I agree he’s a chameleon, as they say, but I’ve just about had it with him in Tim Burton movies. This is their eighth film collaboration and next time, please, let’s have him be natural skin tone. Edward Scissorhands, The Mad Hatter, Sweeney Todd, Willy Wonka… he’s beyond pale. The last time I remember him looking regular in a TB movie was Sleepy Hollow.
KEVIN: I hated that movie.
RYAN: Oh I liked it.
KEVIN: What I really liked about this movie though, was how it paid homage to the old vampire movies. And being a huge fan of classic horror films, I thought Burton and Depp did a great job encapsulating the old time vampire.
RYAN: I don’t mind tipping your hat to the classics, but I did find parts of the vampire story arc derivative of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The witch’s story seemed more new and contemporary though.
KEVIN: There’s only so much you can do with a vampire story and whether it’s Dracula or Twilight, love drives any vampire tale.
RYAN: Personally, I’m more into witches than vampires and I think Eva Green way outshone J.Depp in this movie. This is the second time I’ve seen her as a witch, previously seeing her in
The Golden Compass and she stole the show.
KEVIN: This movie was stylistically closer to Beetlejuice than any other Tim Burton movie I can think of.
RYAN: How do you mean?
KEVIN: How stylized it was shot. Everything he does is stylized.
RYAN: Well he’s an artist. He’s a visionary director and such a visual storyteller. I was amazed by his art exhibit at MOMA a couple years ago; his aesthetic is truly remarkable.
KEVIN: The balance between the visual and the 70s and the contemporary humor was all pretty good.
RYAN: And of course his other muse and life partner, Helena Bonham Carter, was there. She’s so great. And I also really liked Michelle Pfeiffer and I love that she’s aging gracefully.
KEVIN: She definitely looked different than I remember. She’s still a very beautiful lady but just, some of the closeups, I was questioning.
RYAN: [laughs’ Ok. Chloe Grace Moretz was a little too understated in her performance.
KEVIN: I thought she was amazing. I’m a huge fan of hers ever since Kickass. And I liked where her story went.
RYAN: Colleen Atwood once again did costumes. Danny Elfman did the music… Burton has his whole team working together again.
— BOTTOM LINE —
KEVIN: I think this is a rental. This didn’t hold my interest like The Avengers did.
RYAN: It’s a completely different type of film. This isn’t comic book action… it’s fantasy, which is one of my two favorite genres. I say, if you’re likewise into fantasy or are a Tim Burton fan, don’t miss it on the big screen!
— RATING —
Thanks For Viewing The DARK SHADOWS
