Some flaws in the story, but a very powerful message within

Rating: 8/10 (28 June 2012)

I have always admired the unusual way, in which Tim Burton is able to communicate his opinion on old-as-our-world topics. In Edward Scissorhands he confronts the viewer with the constantly recurring problem of personal alienation and rejection from the society, because of differences that might seem too hard to comprehend or actually too scary for most of the 'normal' people.
In the deeply satirical, and highly unconventional manner Burton tries to persuade everyone that good heart and pure kindness won't be enough to be accepted, and that it sometimes takes less than a few minutes to change the way others perceive us. The extraordinary often tends to bore people after a while and they simply throw out human beings like trash bags when they don't need them anymore.
With fantastic special effects and spectacular optical illusions Edward Scissorhands is able to astound in the sphere of visual experiences. However, due to some flaws in the storytelling department it is still not such a fine piece of work like Beetlejuice or Batman.
In a strangely artificial world, where all houses are painted in high-contrast pastel colors, and people wear deliciously ugly and glaring uniforms, there is also a place for a gloomy 'haunted' house standing on a hill. The only person that occupies it is a boy named Edward. Because of the death of his creator, a mad scientist (Vincent Price), he is left with pairs of huge temporary scissors instead of hands.
Ono one shiny day one of the loony housewives, Peg (Dianne West), who lives in the city with her husband, son and daughter, comes knocking on his door, and after just a few moments she decides to take him home. In a community, where everybody is nearly as weird as Edward is, people don't find him strange or frightening. What's more, they are truly amazed by his fantastic abilities, namely the special gift of forming beautiful figures in bushes and ice blocks, and turning regular haircutting into an art form. He is glorified by the local news channels and loved by all the creepy ladies. He is the talk of the town, a one of a kind 'toy' that brings so much fun into this bizarre scenery. There is even some place for romance between him and Kim (Winona Ryder), the family's daughter. However, as it always happens, there are some people who don't appreciate an eccentric man with scissors as his fingers running around posing as a proper citizen. Soon, after a series of unlucky events, Edward is wrongly accused of breaking into a house and all of the fame and love starts to fade away as quickly as it came. And even though what happens next to Edward is truly sad and unfair, the ending is merely as predictable and Hollywood-like. Hard-pressed and angered, the main character is forced to resort to violence and kill the oppressing forces.
The collaboration between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp is nearly as perfect as ever. Without the fantastic character that they both created the movie wouldn't ever be as watchable as it is now. Depp shines on-screen, other characters maybe not so much, but what counts is that through this bizarre and visually impressive movie Burton was able to spread out the word about discrimination and loneliness in the most peculiar, yet really admirable way.