Review of Dark Shadows (2012) by Russell G — 02 Feb 2016

It is hard to explain this movie, because it is tragically uneven. Things start of so well with a narrated back-story where a wealthy young man in Victorian times betrays a witch in love with him in favor of another woman.

The witch, played by the lovely and versatile Eva Green, enchants his lover and casts her over a cliff to her death. Depp's character is not so lucky, she makes him a vampire and buries him alive, incapable of dying and reuniting with his true love in the afterlife.

This is all good so far; the sets and costumes look great, and the story is sound. Depp finds himself unburied in modern times and finds the town he once knew is now completely different. He reconnects with an enjoyable cast of decedent family members living in his old estate.

The present-day family is quirky and off beat and full of dysfunctionality. It has upbeat sentiment as his loyalty to his bloodline compels him to help his new family. There is still a dark undertone to the protagonist though, because he is a vampire and must feed off the living.

Three-quarters of the way through the movie, everything is enjoyable with colorful characters and a plot that has heart and humor. Then things unexplainably lose their way. The story rushes itself and devolves to expensive computer generated action scenes.

Where did the personality and cleverness in storytelling go? It does not recover until the final scene and by then it is too late. Strong performances from Eva Green, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Michelle Pfeiffer mean nothing when the director loses control this badly.

Tim Burton shows his strengths in finding kindness and fun within inherently dark characters, but the story telling falls by the wayside as the finish line is in sight. It is a pity.