Highly unpleasant experience

Rating: 4/10 (10 February 2008)

I like musicals. I really do. Lots of the films out there can be easily classified under that genre and I've had my fair share of being obsessed with Evita, The Nightmare before Christmas and The Phantom of the Opera for instance. But Sweeney Todd didn't cut it for me for several reasons:
1) The Cast cannot sing. They can't and you cannot have a musical with a cast that cannot sing. Opening your mouth to the music does not a singer make. And Johnny Depp is no singer. Period. Which is why this film sucked so hard compared to other successful musicals by Burton such as The Nightmare Before Christmas or even Corpse Bride.
2) None of the characters are likable. None whatsoever. Yes, there's the theme of revenge going on, but Todd / Benjamin Baker did not kill out of necessity. He killed because he could. This is no ordinary fall. At least Macbeth killed, after the initial murder of Duncan, because he wanted to ensure that there would be no one who could incriminate him. Todd killed for economic profits (turning the Rich into meat pies and what not). As such, the element of tragedy is lost. And a protagonist who cannot hold the element of tragedy about him cannot possibly be one that is memorable to the audience.
3) Musical =/= bursting into a song at every possible opportunity. God, it reminded me of Whose Line is it Anyway whereby at the utterance of a decent one-liner, the buzzer is sounded and they'd have to burst out into an impromptu song. Which is comical because it's absurd and out of place - the exact effect that this film brings about.
4) Characters had the depth of a teaspoon. And I don't think I should elaborate.
Argh... and I was really looking forward to watching this too. What a disappointment. Still, for all that it's worth, I think a 4 should be a fair assessment of this disaster - it won't have been a very good movie, but, to me, it fails as a musical.