Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows-2012

Length: Approx. 1 hr. 53 min.
Genre: Comedy/Horror

Cast:
Johnny Depp                                                                  Gulliver McGrath
Michelle Phiefer
Chloe Moretz
Helena Bonham Carter
Eva Green

Grade: C

Would I buy: No

Review:

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton together usually make a great combonation whenever it comes to works of cinema, however here the effort is for naught. Dark Shadows is about a man named Barnabas Collins (Depp) who practically owns the town of Collinsport in his hands due to the family business. He has everything he has ever wanted, money, power, and the love of his life. Unfortunately, this power attracts those with wicken intentions, one of those being a woman named Angelique (Green). After denying her confession of love Angelique is set upon making Barnabas pay for what he has donce, hence killing both of his parents and casting the love of his life under a spell to spiral into her doom. Barnabas' attempt to join his parents and his love are vanquished after he is put under a spell to be a vampire and is eternally doomed to a life of solitude until two centuries later he is found where he has to adjust to the new world and right what was done wrong to him!

The whole problem with this film to me was what plaques many films now a days, the trailer. The trailer for this film (in my eyes at least) seemed to give off a vibe that this film would be pretty funny. The whole problem here though is that the film seemed indecisive on which route it wanted to take. The tone of this film was very dark, and with a dark film such as this it is very difficult to strike a median of comedic elements while keeping the tone still dark and spooky. The dialoque was witty and funny at points but there were just no laugh out loud moments to be able to correctly label this film as funny.

As far as the acting is concerned, I thought it was firing on all cylinders. My only other gripe about this film was that the pacing seemed to be very off. The first 20 or so minutes of this film felt extremely rushed to me. An important concept in a film like this is wanting to feel for the main characters struggle and rooting for them, however here it was just hard to decide who Barnabas was at first. Later on in the film you develope a sense of wanting him to succeed, but it just took to long to decide.

A film of this genre isn't typically my cup of tea however this film did nothing to boost my opinion of it in anyway. I would say that it was a very average film that is honestly pretty forgetable. If you enjoy Johnny Depp's work then by all means go see this movie but do not expect to be blown away.