Dark Shadows Review

Ok everyone here is my first review which is....DARK SHADOWS! I know this has been long awaited and I said it would be video but I can only write it out for right now. I promise though, I will soon be doing video.

Dark Shadows Review:

I'm first going to say with starting out this review that if you expect this movie to be anything like the television show, you are out of luck. This movie has pretty much absolutely nothing to do with the television show so if you were hoping it would be, forget it. It has some of the same character and places but other than that, it captures nothing from the show.

My feelings on this movie however was that I didn't like it, but I didn't hate it. The story is about a man named Barnabas Collins (played by Johnny Depp) who gets transformed into a vampire by a witches curse. He is imprisoned for 200 years and is eventually set free in the year 1972, where he returns to his ancestral home. He meets his remaining family and discovers how dysfunctional they are, and upon his return, decides to take it upon himself to restore the Collin's family good name. The movie is directed by Tim Burton, is in the comedy horror genre, and, as stated before, is based on the 1966-1971 gothic horror soap opera "Dark Shadows".

The good things I saw throughout the film was the scenery, which kept the good gothic Tim Burton feel to it, the characters, and definitely the acting. All the actors played their character in a way that you would feel like you're watching a soap opera, but not as completely over-the-top or campy as an actual soap opera. In saying that though, the only acting that felt off in the entire movie was Johnny Depps. This is not because his acting was bad, but because he played an over-the-top character which just felt really out of place at times. It seemed like everyone else was in a different movie from Johnny Depp the whole time. The characters were great in this film, though. They were, in my opinion, always entertaining to watch and had some really funny moments all together. Some of the comedy in this did have some good laughs, but I don't think there was anything absolutely hilarious in it.

The number one thing that is terrible in this movie is the dialogue. The dialogue was just exposition the entire time and not much else to it. Another thing that I found really confusing throughout the whole film was if the movie wanted to be horror or if it wanted to be comedy. There would be a comedic scene happening on screen but then all of a sudden it would take a really dark turn with no warning. So basically, there was no clear direction, or really balance, for whether the film wanted to be an actual "Dark Shadows" movie or do something funny with it. One thing that was extremely disappointing to me was the use of Chloe Grace Moretz who is one of my favorite actors (she played Hit Girl in the movie Kick-Ass). Her character served absolutely no purpose to the story, because she didn't add anything to it, and could of done fine without her. Another real downfall to this movie was that they tried to fit so much into the movie and it wasn't used correctly or executed well. I know they were probably trying to make people happy with trying to fit as much into the movie with all the stuff that happened in the show, but ultimately it really failed. Also, the continuity is really bad and is easy to catch. Lastly, I want to say that I felt the story to be really generic and already done, and the use of the cameo's for this film was not done well at all (I will be surprised if anyone knows what scene the cameo's were in or who they are).

Overall I thought this movie was ok. Like I said, I didn't like it and didn't really hate it. I wouldn't say completely skip it but don't go out of your way to see it either. It has a lot of faults to it, especially if you liked the television show, but it is still a lot of fun to watch.

Well that's one down and many, many more to go. Like I said, I will try to be getting these reviews out as soon as possible, as I know many of you like them and like to know what is good to watch in theaters. I will also be doing this all summer. The next upcoming review will be "The Dictator" with "The Avengers" to follow, and as I promised the review of "Breaking Dawn Pt. 1" and "The Hunger Games" will be coming out as well. Hope you all enjoy!

Keep you guys posted,
~FilmFox