Dissapointment as a seasoned Tim Burton fan

Rating: 5/10 (27 January 2000)

To all those who have seen or are to see this film: I would like to say that I found this film to be a dissapointment in terms of other Tim Burton films that I delighted in with a sometimes dark humour. I found it to be choppy, the characters unbelievable and lacking depth, and also the style and production excedingly unoriginal. It seemed to me, at many times during the film, to be no different from many of the other special effects laden products from the movie factories of Hollywood. There were indeed moments of that Tim Burton sparkle, that was lended so perfectly in gems such as Beatlejuice or Edward ScissorHands. In Sleepy Hallow, I also found a definite lack of atmosphere that in Burton´s other films was so integral and special. It was not the alternative reality of some time-caught present, with emblems of the glory days of post world war II America, for example. Nor was it a detail laden representation of some imagined time. The reality that he presents is far more story-tale like, yet, in a way that lacks the feeling of a true altenrate reality, lacks the feeling of trully being in the reality of the tale. Nor did Danny Elfman´s accompanying music have the elevating and moving quality as in other Burton films, nor was it as memorable. So, it is with all this in mind that I warn those who are to see it to do so without expcetations of films past. And to those who have seen it, to go to the local video store and re-watch some of the Burton classics.