A film whose wonderful potential is spoiled

Rating: 4/10 (8 April 2008)

I understand that the movie and stage play are very popular, and I agree that the music, acting, and so on are excellent. But I am totally put off by the grisly scenes of murder. The comic point-of-view does not for me justify the wholesale and rather pointless murders of innocent victims, and the "poetic justice" at the end, when Sweeney Todd himself dies, was a completely extraneous device intended perhaps to make the story seem less morally bankrupt than it truly is. I do wish the blood and gore had been more off stage, because the songs are wonderfully melodic and the lyrics at times very funny. As it is, I would not recommend this movie to anyone I liked, and certainly not to anyone under 21.