Review of Edward Scissorhands (1990) by Stefan G — 16 Mar 2015

I used to think that this film was massively overrated, but that was because I looked at it with too much of a logical perspective in mind, and in doing so, I may have missed the point. In fact, now I think the film is a metaphorical, symbolic work of art, and I say this because I believe that I can see what the film-makers might have been intending.

The story was very well-constructed, although the pacing might have been a bit hampered by the writers' attempts to pass it off as a kind of modern fairy tale (as evidenced by the narration at the beginning and end of the film).

The characters, meanwhile, offer a rich portrayal of the society that has taken the eponymous main character into their world, and, in my opinion, would subsequently serve to warp the character. For me, the film also serves as an artistic portrayal of naivety, both in youth and in suburbia, and it presents an image of an artifice that is exploited by the very people who took him in, in addition to its reflection on Tim Burton's own feelings from when he felt he was an isolated youth.

That, for me, made it very thought-provoking, and the ending was also very satisfying.