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Tim Burton's Dark Shadows

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Colossus Rex		#801	[-]
May 13 12 12:34 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Doctor Lamont wrote: I think you had to be familiar with the original show to really get this film. Burton does a good job of capturing the quirky feel of the show better than House of Dark Shadows which featured the original cast. For better or worse, Burton has tried to recreate the experience of watching the show back in the 70s rather than telling a story based on the characters from it. Hmm. I just saw the movie, and enjoyed it to a modest extent. One thing I'd say this busy and mostly meaningless film does NOT do is capture the feeling of the original show. The original was slow-moving, gloomy, terribly earnest but very addictive. It made you care about the characters, even ones like Roger. And it barely ever made reference, campy or otherwise, to 60s or 70s pop culture. I told the friend that I saw the movie with to check out the old show on Netflix, but not to expect it to be anything like the movie we just saw.
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Shadow Chaser		#802	[-]
May 13 12 12:41 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Colossus Rex wrote: Doctor Lamont wrote: I think you had to be familiar with the original show to really get this film. Burton does a good job of capturing the quirky feel of the show better than House of Dark Shadows which featured the original cast. For better or worse, Burton has tried to recreate the experience of watching the show back in the 70s rather than telling a story based on the characters from it. Hmm. I just saw the movie, and enjoyed it to a modest extent. One thing I'd say this busy and mostly meaningless film does NOT do is capture the feeling of the original show. The original was slow-moving, gloomy, terribly earnest but very addictive. It made you care about the characters, even ones like Roger. And it barely ever made reference, campy or otherwise, to 60s or 70s pop culture. I told the friend that I saw the movie with to check out the old show on Netflix, but not to expect it to be anything like the movie we just saw. Agreed. The film failed to capture the feel of the show and doubt that was ever the intention. Yet I'm glad it worked for Doctor Lamont and hope this leads to Blu-ray releases for the original series, HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS.
HalLane		#803	[-]
May 13 12 1:08 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Colossus Rex wrote: And it barely ever made reference, campy or otherwise, to 60s or 70s pop culture. That's so true -- there were occasional glimpses of '60s space toys in David's room that were to drool for, but other than that, no lava lamps, Frisbees or even hippies. Collinwood and even Collinsport itself existed as if separate from the passage of time (literally, in some wings of the house). The Blue Whale tavern played the same two bogus songs on the jukebox year after year after year, like watching the same old horror movie on the Late Late Show over and over again, and the only tv set within an acre of the place was in Joan Bennett's dressing room. I like Doctor Lamont's point about recreating the experience rather than retelling the story, and I enjoyed the flick for very much that reason. It captures that timeframe in a way the series never could. It's not HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and I'm glad -- we've already got one of those. (Though I suspect parts of that movie did in fact trickle into this one through osmosis.)
Bluesman Mark		#804	[-]
May 13 12 1:24 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Colossus Rex wrote: Doctor Lamont wrote: I think you had to be familiar with the original show to really get this film. Burton does a good job of capturing the quirky feel of the show better than House of Dark Shadows which featured the original cast. For better or worse, Burton has tried to recreate the experience of watching the show back in the 70s rather than telling a story based on the characters from it. Hmm. I just saw the movie, and enjoyed it to a modest extent. One thing I'd say this busy and mostly meaningless film does NOT do is capture the feeling of the original show. The original was slow-moving, gloomy, terribly earnest but very addictive. It made you care about the characters, even ones like Roger. And it barely ever made reference, campy or otherwise, to 60s or 70s pop culture. I told the friend that I saw the movie with to check out the old show on Netflix, but not to expect it to be anything like the movie we just saw. I have to agree 100%. As someone that has watched DS over the years, this mess didn't capture anything but the names of the characters it was based on.
Colossus Rex		#805	[-]
May 13 12 1:35 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	SPOILER * * * This is a fairly mild spoiler, but I'd also like to point out that many of the dimensions of Barnabas' character in the original show ... his revulsion at his condition, his at least initial reluctance to kill, his own insane obsession with recapturing Josette's love ... in short, all the things that make him a tragic figure ... are lost in the new film, glossed over or played for laughs.
will		#806	[-]
May 13 12 3:14 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Gojira wrote: GaryP11111 wrote: Box office reports suggest that Tim Burton's DARK SHADOWS is trending to just miss the lower tier of its opening weekend box office expectations. Warners was hopeful for a $30-50 million weekend, but prognostications kept trending lower as it became apparent that THE AVENGERS is surpassing expectations. Receipts indicate that DARK SHADOWS will pull in $28.5 million. I suspect there will be a huge drop next week. The picture is reported to have cost about $165 million. I do wonder why they feel the need to spend so much on these films in the first place. Surely you can film something low key and make it look expensive - Mario Bava is a legend for it! Why are these movies costing so much? I understand the first Robert Downey Sherlock Holmes cost less than half that. Is most of it going into Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's pocket?
luluthebeast		#807	[-]
May 13 12 3:18 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, Burton did have the entire town and mansion built from scratch.
Shadow Chaser		#808	[-]
May 13 12 3:53 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	luluthebeast wrote: Well, Burton did have the entire town and mansion built from scratch. Kudos for that. As mentioned before, it was visually great. The sets were wonderful. Loved the Shell Station. It was the lack of focus because too much was going on that caused some problems. Even Burtonphiles who accompanied felt it was a misstep story-wise. Yet we all enjoyed it visually speaking.
TAUBLAR		#809	[-]
May 13 12 4:48 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The movie was good, but I never cared for the "soap opera" on TV. I watched it once for one week. On Monday someone was going out a door. On Wednesday they were halfway out the door. On Friday they slamed the door behind them. So much for "Dark Shadows" on TV!
Rick		#810	[-]
May 13 12 5:09 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Doctor Lamont wrote: I think you had to be familiar with the original show to really get this film. . Can't agree with this at all, at all. Obviously I liked it much more than most folk around here (I liked it a lot), and I have virtually no background in the show. I watched a week or two back in the day, was bored to tears, and never went back. On this basis, I'd guess that NOT being familiar with the show might make one appreciate the movie more.
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will		#811	[-]
May 13 12 7:27 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think getting hooked on the show depended on what story they were on when you caught it. I was in and out (mostly out) until I caught the Quentin 1900 storyline when they were already well in it. Then I was hooked and stayed with some less than inspired stories after that. And the pacing was bettter than your standard soap of the time. Typical back then every five days or whatever two old members of the cast would talk in the kitchen about what was going on with the young ones. They would blow a third of the episode doing that. If DS did recap the plot, they did it in a less obvious way.
borchabob		#812	[-]
May 13 12 8:48 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	TAUBLAR wrote: The movie was good, but I never cared for the "soap opera" on TV. I watched it once for one week. On Monday someone was going out a door. On Wednesday they were halfway out the door. On Friday they slamed the door behind them. So much for "Dark Shadows" on TV! I think that's the way it is with most soaps. You watch it on monday, miss it the rest of the week, then see it the following Monday, only to find you really haven't missed anything.
Doctor Lamont		#813	[-]
May 13 12 9:14 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	And it barely ever made reference, campy or otherwise, to 60s or 70s pop culture. That's why Burton's film captures the experience of seeing the show when it aired in the 70s. While those elements were not so much a part of the show, they were what was happening at the time, and the Dark Shadows novels, gum cards, posters and models kits were a part of that culture. Anyone who was introduced to the show later via videos or DVDs might not see the connection. By evoking that cultural climate the film doesn't so much recreate the original series as much as it does the experience of being 5 and watching it with the Carpenters playing on the radio in the kitchen and lava lamp on the coffee table.
TAUBLAR		#814	[-]
May 13 12 9:35 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	borchabob: I think that's the way it is with most soaps. You watch it on monday, miss it the rest of the week, then see it the following Monday, only to find you really haven't missed anything. I think you are right. The only soap opera I remember seeing, which I liked, was LOVING. In fact my wife and I named our dog after one of the characters on that show......TRUCKER
Red Gargon		#815	[-]
May 13 12 10:28 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	will wrote: Gojira wrote: GaryP11111 wrote: The picture is reported to have cost about $165 million. I do wonder why they feel the need to spend so much on these films in the first place. Surely you can film something low key and make it look expensive - Mario Bava is a legend for it! Why are these movies costing so much? I understand the first Robert Downey Sherlock Holmes cost less than half that. Is most of it going into Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's pocket? To me there's the real shame. Invest $165 million in a new daytime series of DARK SHADOWS and you could sustain it for years, let it find its footing and have ups and downs in a format that is (obviously) a more natural fit for the material. But for what the entire 600 hours of original series cost several times over, we're left with a bottom line of 113 minutes of what to me was just slightly above average entertainment.
Badfinger		#816	[-]
May 13 12 11:45 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	This was even worse than Burton's PLANET OF THE APES. Despite what is being said, the trailer does not misrepresent this movie. It is primarily a comedy. The fact that it isn't funny, doesn't change that. Apart from not being funny, it's also amazingly dull. I can't honestly remember the last major motion picture that I saw that was this bad. Utter garbage! 0 out of 10.
delgadosaur		#817	[-]
May 14 12 10:36 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It's called above the line costs, and those are the cast and/or crew members that are getting paid up front as part of the initial budget, as well as perhaps a negotiated percentage of the take. Anyone below the line are salaried employees, stiffs like me. Ever wonder why there's so many producers on the credit list, lol?
Dr Acula		#818	[-]
May 14 12 11:31 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	My third time trying to post to this thread - the first time the Yuku gods decided to log me out after writing an hour... the second time my computer crashed. So I'm not going to go over everything I said twice before, but just point out a few things: The controversial character reveal in the final act seems to come out of nowhere most likely due to a cut scene. On the soundtrack credits, there is a song credit for Hanna/Barbera's Scooby Doo (not the title track, but an in-episode song) concerning just such a being that is not evident in the film. I believe that a scene exists using that song from the Scooby Doo show to foreshadow the eventual reveal of the character. (There is a Scooby Doo scene in the film currently, but it's not one with a song in it). The scene between Barnabus and Dr. Hoffman's forward behavior was over the top for this film, and didn't seem to true to the characters as established. I normally like sexy stuff in films, but that scene was just icky. Much of what has been said before (Penny & Gary & Dominic in particular) all helps show that the film has merits at the same time is a bit of a mess. It has one of the oddest tones for a major motion picture that I've seen in years. Like Dr. 1313, I felt the scene with the hippies played much creepier in the film than in the commercials. There is an interview with the screenwriter on Collider where he talks about cut scenes: Barnabus & David getting to know each other.... the goodbye scene with the dad leaving the kid, was cut down because it was felt it redeemed the character too much... will be on the blu ray... a little scene with Dr. Hoffman and Victoria where the Dr thinks that Victoria is up to something that he said had a weird creepy sexual vibe (which might also tie into the scene we didn't like between DR and Barnabus)... these were all that were mentioned in the interview, but he said that there were numerous character moments cut out for all the characters. Last Edited By: Dr Acula May 14 12 11:39 AM. Edited 1 times.
MacXoftheMounted		#819	[-]
May 14 12 11:38 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Burton's good to bad movie ratio is pretty low in my opinion. I won't be bothering with this. Didn't bother with Sweeney Todd either. Most of his stuff is great looking, but really doesn't have any kind of story that's really involving. And that's what our critic said about this one. Looks cool... not much happens... and it's a comedy that doesn't make you laugh much. To me, Burton's a great director ONLY if you throw the word "art" in front of that title. And that's what he should be. He produces good looking stuff, but nothing I find overly entertaining. Loved Ed Wood, enjoyed Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands wasn't bad, although I've never felt any desire to watch it a second time... and I kind of like Sleepy Hollow, despite Depp's overperformance... other than that... I don't think I'll ever pay to see anything else he does unless it gets GREAT word-of-mouth after release, or the subject matter (as per Ed Wood) appeals to me enough to discount his involvement. I find him like watching The Addams Family movies over and over again. MacXoftheMounted.....................formerly known as Professor Von X Last Edited By: MacXoftheMounted May 14 12 11:41 AM. Edited 1 times.
will		#820	[-]
May 14 12 1:06 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	This controversy about the tone of the movie is interesting. I am not going to see it so I don't have a definitive opinion. Is it really a horror movie with some weird comedy bits, or is it what I suspect, a misfired attempt at black comedy with Burton not understanding how that is done? You have to keep things fairly deadpan and serious with black comedy and Burton throws in too many over-the-top cartoon jokes, based on what is in the trailer.
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Tim Burton's Dark Shadows