Great Fun! One of Burton's Good Ones

Rating: 8/10 (18 May 2012)

I've never seen the show, or the previous films, but Tim Burton's Dark Shadows was great fun. The comedy is not in your face, it's subtle and sarcastic and witty. The film is a slowburner, it's not action packed, but I don't think it was meant to be either. This after all is paying homage to all those spooky Dan Curtis movies and television shows, he was always about the old fashioned horror clichés, the fog, the moon, the ghosts, the giant mansion.
I thought Depp was great as Barnabas and is really what kept me glued to the film, Barnabas is a great character, the fish out of water elements were great, but so was the theme about trying to bring the Collins family back to it's former glory.
I salute Burton for not using so much CGI, this time, its only used when necessary. This time we get real sets, and not everything is computer generated. The art direction is top notch as is expected of a Burton film.
Some people might not like it when compared to the TV show, because this is a comedy and the shows were not comedic, but I think on its own merits, the film works and I consider it to be one of Burton's "good ones"