It was fun, and then I went "huh"?

Rating: Null/10 (14 May 2012)

When it comes to movies, I only expect to be entertained and nothing else. If it makes me think deeply about any given subject, all the better but if I'm not drawn in I don't care. Therefore, my tastes with film are simple...if I came out of the theater feeling like it was money and time well spent, then it was a decent film.
I enjoyed this movie and was thoroughly entertained. I grew up on old Dark Shadows reruns, and enjoyed that Burton didn't take it too seriously (as I think the early 90's revival series with Ben Cross did). Let's face it...the original series was cheesy, and oftentimes downright bad. But the story lines were compelling, and Jonathan Frid was a pretty good actor to boot.
The first 15 minutes of the film were brilliant. The opening scenes portrayed how the Collins family arrived in Colonial America, the affair with Angelique, the death of Josette and the transformation of Barnabas. It then goes into the opening credits with Knights In White Satin as the background music while Victoria Winters travels to Colinsport through the forests of Maine.
From there the 1970's story takes off and the comedy begins. Most of the comedy centered around Barnabas being a fish out of water in the 1970's. Now, I admit that while watching the series as a kid, I always thought Barnabas eased his way into modern times with too little difficulty. Shouldn't Barnabas have been confounded by say, electricity, cars, or pop culture? It seems that Burton and Depp thought that as well and there were several very funny scenes showing how Barnabas coped with the modern world. I laughed out loud several times along with the rest of the audience.
So finally, we come to the climax, and that was where I felt the movie went off the tracks. Without giving spoilers away, there was a major surprise during the climax that made me go "where did that come from?" But generally, the climactic scene was a bit boring for such a major scene!
As for other issues, I feel the one other problem was that the character of Dr. Julia Hoffman was unnecessary in this film. In the original series, she had quite a major role. Burton cut out quite few major characters in this film from the original series, so I ended up feeling he was trying to find a role for his wife in the movie more than keeping the character in out of necessity for the plot line. To have given the plot line with Dr. Julia it's proper due you really would have needed several more scenes.
Based on how much I was entertained by the film, I give it an 8. I would have probably gave it a 9 had the climax been different and keeping more with the story line. For the first 15 minutes of the film alone, I bumped up the score from 7 to 8 as rarely are opening credits done so well as in this film.
I would recommend this film to fans of the original series who never took it too seriously, or anyone who loves a good send-up to Twilight (one MAJOR scene in particular) and loves 70's nostalgia.