Johnny Brento – Preaches the Gospel of Dark Shadows
The Official Dark Shadows One Sheet
This week quiet unexpectedly, I found myself in the theater watching Dark Shadows. As I’ve been working on developing my movie prototyping work flow using my new iPhone 4S, I decided to shoot this quick review of the latest Tim Burton picture. The results may surprise you. It’s not quite the piece of pancake covered crap I was expecting. Nah, I say. Click on the video to find out my inner most thoughts on Dark Shadows.
The film starts in colonial America and then jumps forward to 1972 and a rather pleasant re-imagining of those shagadelic times with music from the era that could only be described as the “the best sounds to come out of the 70′s”. The cast lead by the ever bankable Johnny Depp was fleshed out by Michelle Pfeiffer, Jackie Earle Haley, Eva Green, Bella Heathcote, and the obligatory, at least when it’s a Burton film, Helena Bonham Carter. Chloë Grace Moretz who fills the role of the rebelious Carolyn Sotddard (angry teen with a dark secret) has turned into quite the little actress. We see her here so squarely between girl and womanhood that her distain of basically all adults just seems so believable. Christopher Lee makes an appearance in a brief scene and there’s even a sweet little cameo for Alice Cooper. Actually, they picked two of his best tunes to feature and I’m betting this film will sell a lot of his records.
Michelle Pfeiffer
This particular review is in fact, spoiler free. I hope to do a more in depth discussion on it with spoilers in tact on a future installment of MVP Mutant Radio. This film had some incredible CGI work in it’s climatic sequence. The practical makeup was extremely theatrical and overly dramatic. To be honest, it put me off in the trailer and early promotional shots. Actually seeing it realized in this full on Burton world, it completely worked and really harkened back to the original portrayal of Barnabus Collins.
My single complaint was that main characters origin story felt a little rushed. I’d love to have seen more of the original love triangle that got him cursed to eternity as a vampire in the first place. Of course we arrive in 1973 around Halloween time setting the stage for a full own live action Burton tilt to everything like you might seen in a film like Corpse Bride. “Hence the pumpkins in the yard.”
The inevitable sequel was solidly setup in the film’s last frames. Even thought I went in with a bit of a chip on my shoulder over my fondness of the scary original version, I find that I’m O.K. with the thoughts of another funny Dark Shadows film.
