1972 and not one cameo appearance by Blackula? Tim, when did you stop having fun?

Rating: 6/10 (13 May 2012)

Boy, is there anything Tim Burton and Johnny Depp won't do together? This is the ultimate bromance I've ever heard of. Tim Burton is a good director, but even more of a great visualist and story teller. He has some really terrific and unique ideas and the reason he's praised by a lot of fans is because he's different and doesn't bend over for studios, he knows his audience and loves them. But when it comes to him remaking or rebooting something like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Planet of the Apes, Alice in Wonderlandhe's not as strong and focused. When he has his own ideas, he knows how to get the point across, but someone else's ideas, he doesn't seem to know how to take control and seems to be a fan boy more than how to keep the story straight. So he's given us Dark Shadows, a cult favorite show from the 70's. I didn't watch the entire TV series, but remember watching it as a kid on TV Land and loving the spooky feeling it gave me. Tim Burton instead of going with the dark story line, gives us The Addams Family Revisited.
In 1760, Barnabas Collins is a wealthy playboy in Collinsport and is the master of Collinwood Manor. He breaks the heart of a witch, Angelique, who kills his parents, curses his family, and has his lover leap to her death from a nearby cliff and finally turns Barnabas into a vampire and buries him alive in a chained coffin in the woods. In 1972, Barnabas is accidentally freed from his coffin by a group of construction workers. He drains their blood and makes his way back to Collinwood Manor where he finds his once-magnificent mansion in ruin. The manor is currently occupied by Barnabas' dysfunctional descendants. Barnabas decides to restore his family name, but when Angelique discovers that he has escaped his shallow grave, she plots revenge and tries to win him back.
There are good points in the film like Johnny Depp's performance, which he seemed to have a bit of fun with this role. Not his strongest performance, but much better than what he's been doing this past year. He just clicks better with stranger roles for some reason. Michelle Pfeiffer, who seriously must've sold her soul to the devil to look that amazing at 54 years old, does give it her all. The cinematography is just beautiful and the castle looks amazing and almost takes you back into the Hammer horror movies, speaking of which had a nice touch on having the film poster Dracula AD 1972 in the background at the movie theater and then have Christopher Lee being hypnotized by Johnny Depp. The jokes despite falling flat after a while provide a good laugh.
We have an excellent cast and it feels like most of them really go to waste. Chloë Grace Moretz, who I really like, could've been a more interesting character but falls flat and randomly without explanation becomes a werewolf at the end. Jackie Earle Haley is a drunk, Helena Bonham Carter is a tired alcoholic hag who wants to live forever and Jonny Lee Miller is a greedy unclethat's it for their screen time. I would've loved to see more focus on the family vs. Barnabas and Angelique going at it every five minutes of her begging for him back and him saying no constantly. Tim Burton had some good ideas for this one, but like most of his remakes or reboots, he didn't fully get the original message and didn't know where to go with this one. He makes Barnabas into a monster, then wants you to love him because he's cursed and trying to be good, but then murders people who try to help him, but he's so good with his niece and nephew that you have to love him again. I'm not surprised that not as many people are liking this as they expected it would, from the trailer, this seemed a little too goofy and off from the original series. I was just hoping that Tim and Johnny would've put a little more thought into this one, we could've used a great reboot to this cool, but dated TV series. But given some credit, at least they used a real vampire, Alice Cooper, who is 140 years old and is still rocking like he's 20!
6/10