Not an awful movie, but a huge disappointment nonetheless...

Rating: 5/10 (24 February 2008)

Let's get right to the point: Sweeney Todd is a disappointment. Neither Tim Burton's awesome Gothic atmospheres nor Johnny Depp's and Helena Bonham Carter's great acting can save this movie.
Since Sweeney Todd is a musical/splatter movie, it offers both a lot of songs and a lot of blood. Both done poorly.
The songs aren't what you would expect: basically, each character has a "theme" song: Anthony keeps singing his annoying Johanna song, judge Turpin repeats "pretty women" a dozen times (and it's called a song?), Toby has his "while I'm here, blah blah blah" part and so on. All these characters do is talk, sing for a couple of seconds, and go away. The exceptions are the main characters: Sweeney Todd, a man torn by vengeance and a bit of a psycho, and Mrs. Lovett, owner of a meat pie shop, who is, at times, even crazier than him. These two do have their theme songs (Sweeney's is like judge Turpin's, except he sings "London sucks" instead of "pretty women"), but also sing with each other, or with other characters. Sometimes there is a song that's not awful like the "theme" ones, which is a welcome addition (for example, Mrs. Lovett stating how she makes the worst pies in London).
As for the splatter part, it can be summed up in two points: 1) the blood is done VERY poorly, to the point it looks like (and flows like) red paint... 2) there are only a few gory scenes, with some 10 or so executions, all done in the same way, which means when you've seen the first two, you've seen them all. Add that, in my opinion, the movie's Gothic ambiance hardly suits these blood-filled scenes, which are more suited to a B-movie.
The characters themselves are one-dimensional and can be summed up by their theme songs: Anthony is your usual idealistic youngster who falls in love with a girl he's seen ONCE at the window, and gets obsessed with "stealing her"; Sweeney's lust for revenge, and blood in general (I guess one could say he's emo) is reflected in his "London is full of crap, London is this, London is that" lines, and so on.
Of course, this movie does not suck that bad (hence the 5/10): some of the scenes are in fact very enjoyable, if not downright comical, like the "duel" between Sweeney and Signor Pirelli, but they alone are not enough to save the whole film. There is a total of ONE plot twist, towards the end, which can leave the viewer in shock for a second or two, but nothing too exciting.
In the end, Sweeney Todd doesn't offer much: a Gothic atmosphere, some forgettable songs, great acting by the protagonists, and that's it. I was very disappointed with this movie, so I can only advise you to think twice before watching it...