Only Half of it is Worth It

Rating: 3/10 (31 December 2012)

I thought that this film was going to be very good, with comedy, drama, romance, etc.
The first ten minutes of the film show us Barnabas Collins as a human, in the 1700s. It is, perhaps, the best scene in the movie. If only it could have lasted like that.
If you are a huge Dark Shadows fan and have seen the show, you would know that Victoria Winters and Maggie Evans are two different characters, and that the Karolyn Leigh Scott - Maggie Evans - plays Josette DuPress. In the show, however, they combine both Victoria/Viki, and Maggie into one character. Perhaps this makes some sense - since Maggie and Josette look more alike than Viki and Josette. Once again, Tim Burton has decided to add a pathetic back-story to the main character, with some hints of the Sixth Sense.
Barnabas arrives on scene in 1972. At first, his jokes about McDonalds, cars, and other matters are funny, but they become rather old. The entire film focuses on Barnabas and his relationship with Angelique Bouchard, the witch who cursed him 200 years ago, leaving only a few seconds of screen time for the other actors - Pfieffer, Grace Moretz, McGarath, Bonham Carter, etc.
Despite their efforts to cram 6 years worth of soap opera into a 2 hour film, nobody seemed to care about the script, which was utter terrible. The dialogue was dry and predictable.
The film was simply a combination of over-acted drama with bits of unnecessary sex.
Don't rent the movie. Save yourself two hours to do something useful.