For fans of Burton it can't be labeled anything but a disappointment!

Rating: 6/10 (16 May 2012)

'DARK SHADOWS': Three Stars (Out of Five)
Tim Burton and Johnny Depp team together once again to bring the popular 1960's horror soap opera (of the same name) to the big screen in campy spoof form. Fans of the original series will most likely not be pleased by Burton's rendition of the melodramatic soap as it lacks strong character development as well as story structure and never takes the material seriously in the slightest. The film was written by Seth Grahame-Smith and John August (both future and past Burton collaborators on other films as well) and co-stars the likes of Eva Green, Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jackie Earl Haley, Johnny Lee Miller, Bella Heathcote and of course Helena Bonham Carter (Burton's mainstay and partner). The film will most likely let down Burton and Depp fans as well, although Depp is good in the film like always.
The story focuses on Barnabas Collins (Depp), a rich playboy in 1752 who breaks the heart of a servant named Angelique Bouchard (Green), who also happens to be a witch. Out of anger and jealousy Angelique curses Barnabas to be a vampire and causes his one true love to commit suicide. She then convinces the townspeople to turn against him and bury him alive. Barnabas is trapped, chained in a coffin, for centuries until he is freed by some construction workers in 1972. He then returns to his estate to find it in ruins and under the hands of his depressed distant relatives, lead by Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Pfeiffer). Barnabas must then do battle with Angelique once again in order to save his new family.
The film is darker than I was expecting! Depp's Barnabas is not a good vampire like the trailers lead you to believe; he murders and feeds on innocent victims and yet he is the film's hero. Depp is hilarious in the role and the 'fish out of water' humor does work for the most part but the rest of the story does not. It has no direction and seems to just consist of a bunch of random scenes thrown together. Burton's directing is not efficient and I actually found the film quite boring at times. Still Green looks gorgeous, it's nice to see Pfeiffer working again and the rest of the cast is adequate. The film just had potential to be a lot more and for fans of Burton it can't be labeled anything but a disappointment.
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