Sweeney Todd

Rating: 6/10 (15 March 2008)

I do not hold the opinion that only fans' or experts' views count, Tim Burton is an acquired taste and it will never be mine. Often appraised as an original and revolutionary filmmaker, he always creates a slight variation of his dark Gothic fantasy world, nothing more.
Truly innovative directors are able to succeed in many genres with bravura, Mr. Burton does not. And for that reason he is not yet among the great directors such as De Palma, Stone, Coppola, and the other legends.
Sweeney Todd is a dark comedy/musical with a Depp in the form of his life. He is Sweeney Todd and rightly won the Golden Globe for it. Of course the whole looks attractive, the set designs are wonderful and the cinematographer deserves mention too, but it simply bored me out of my mind. I simply don't see how it's possible to mess up such a great concept, Johnny Depp as a throat-slicing vengeful barber, whose victims are then baked into pies, each profession apparently having a different flavor. Sounds sensational, but every time the actors opened their mouths to heave another badly chanted song, I was ashamed in place of the actors. Sure, the lyrics were cute but every time a song began it took me out of the hypnosis of the story, and it was very funny (unintentionally unfortunately).
To be fair I never have and never will like musicals. It doesn't help that Depp hasn't got any more talent than the average American Idol contestant. Even the deliciously dark humor couldn't save the movie, it bored me out of my mind and though it wasn't the train wreck I anticipated, it's pretty disappointing. The film just loses me after the first act, there's a lot of repetition and the story felt uninspired and in the end it was...predictable. For the final plot twists to be surprising, they shouldn't have covered up the 'old' woman's face so excessively.
I'm beginning to lose hope of Burton every being up to the task of outdoing his best movie so far, Big Fish. A movie which I just ate up, it's sad an obvious talented director since then hasn't created anything remotely as good...
5.6/10