Eva Green cast as female lead in Dark Shadows

In the original show, Barnabas didn't have to do a lot of adapting because he spent most of his time at Collinwood, which was very isolated, or Collinsport, which was not exactly Haight Ashbury.

 

Uh, yeah...

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFzLRP8e4vE[/yt]

It's the white facepaint that gives you away, I think.

 

I did reference that clip earlier so it's not like I'm trying to get away with anything.

 

I give it a solid B. I went last night and had a fun time.

The bits that fell the most flat centered around the supposed triangle. The scenes with Barnabas and his family + Willy and the maid were spot on.

What they did with the young girl was a stupid and pointless addition IMHO.

I was bored by Barnabas and Angie. However, the kiss my posterior repeatedly line was pure gold.

 

I have to say what others have already said about the trailers. They are very misleading. This is not a comedy. There are comedic bits to it which I enjoyed, but what the movie is actually, is a lot of fun with some unexpected but welcomed darkness to it. The middle is where it loses it's way and gets really messy storywise, but there are glimpses of Classic Burton here. Also, nice to see a vampire be a vampire and not all sparkly douchey.

 

Watched it last night. Film doesn't seem like it knows what it wants to be, comedy or serious, entertainer or story teller. But damn, Eva Green is worth the price of admission!

 

Eva Green is hot but I'm not sure she is worth the price of a ticket alone....seems like Burton was indulged to play around as much as he liked with this movie after the box-office success of Alice in Wonderland but the film ends up as a bit of a mess to be honest, great authors need good editors and sometimes Burton does need a producer to get more focus into his movies

 

I didn't much like Eva Green as a blonde or with Tim Burton's usual 10 coats of white makeup.

 

Just once, I'd like to see a Tim Burton movie that doesn't look like a Tim Burton movie. Doesn't this guy get tired of his own act?

 

I don't know, I'd rather have a "Tim Burton movie" over Planet of the Apes.

 

Johnny Depp is Tim Burton in Tim Burton's Tim Burton!

LINK

 

and it was called 'Edward Scissorhands'

 

So Vulcan or no one did a Grade Review for this right? I apologize if I overlooked it. I saw a few others post their thoughts here so...

Grade: C

Partially cause the first act was truly what I wanted the whole film to feel like tonally and cause the trailers flat out lied about the type movie this was.
I was prepared and braced for full on cheese and camp which is what caused me to lose any anticipation for the film. I used my Regal Reward Freebie pass to see this just in case it was a full blown stinker.

The whole first act was great imo. It was just brooding enough, dark enough and yet introduced all the main players in an interesting fashion. From the origins in Liverpool to coming across to America. The building of the unrequited love that would grow between Angelique and Barnabus to her cursing him to be a vampire. The introduction of "Victoria Winters" and the revisiting of her origins later in act II, good stuff.

I even could forgive the first full on slapstick of the movie when Barnabus is freed. It was set up with his viewing of the "big M" in the book about Mephistopheles. I also think the "when will the horses be ready--we have a Chevy" line was adequate enough humor. The 2-3 non verbal jokes with the nearly deaf old lady housekeeper worked cause they were overall subtle.

Do not get me started on Alice Cooper. The "love scene" between Barnabus and Angelique in her office was another bad moment imo. The "tiny songstress" in the TV was not delivered well also, didn't work. The always hungover Dr.Hoffman was also something that didn't work form. Too bad

Spoiler: spoiler

she couldn't have died earlier.

As long as the movie was focused on Barnabus trying to restore the family's position and his allure to Victoria I felt the film was working. I liked Jackie Earl Hayley as the gardner/stooge to Barnabus as well.

My lack of familiarity aside I felt the sudden revelation in the closing moments of the films climax about Carolyn were very jarring. Did I miss a clue to that within the context of the film?
Loner teenager is not enough.

Spoiler: Lone ____

, wolf. Cause that's all I could think of and if so that's weak and doesn't fly with me.

Liked the soundtrack, color palette and cinematography of the film. I really feel that marketing dropped the ball somewhat. There was not enough balance to tell me this wasn't a straight up comedy. I didn't expect Scary Movie but the trailers had me fully thinking more of Vampire in Brooklyn than what it was. Had all things with Alice Cooper been dropped and the Ball sequence been done more "old London" elegant that would've been prime. The love scene toned down to not be so silly then those 3 things imo could've turned this film around.

 

I'll give it a B.

Not as funny as I expected. In fact what I found funniest were the choices of period music.

Eva Green's American accent sucks. She's usually good at playing bat-shit crazy, but not if she's trying to speak like one of the natives.

(So, how really icky is it that I spent a good portion of the movie thinking inappropriate things about Chloe Moretz? I'm so ashamed...)

 

Yeah, I thought to myself that someone is growing up quicker than her age tells. Still has the "girl" look in the face though, she's not quite yet there.

 

I just saw Kick-Ass last month, and I was amazed at how much older she looked in the trailers for this.

 

I always wonder if changes like that are the actresses's idea or that of the horny old producer...

 

Due to this project I had started to watch the old Dark Shadow serial to get a bit acquainted with it not having watched it growing up. I actually became quite hooked to it and have watched a rather large chunk of it at this point. Having some time off work I decided to check this out at an early show.

I think they did a pretty good job distilling the show into a two hour movie. Some of the characters were tweaked from their source material and different personality traits and storylines were merged and consolidated so while everything doesn't match exactly it does a pretty good job reflecting the character of the series overall for the most part.

Angelique is actually much more tolerable than the evil Mary Sueish character presented in the series. Her being a competitor to the Collins family business was inspired. I thought Eva Green did a good job as nemesis to Barnabas and the Collins family.

Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman was probably the biggest departure from the series as far as characters go. The character seemed extraneous, I don't think the film would've suffered much had she been cut entirely (at least as presented). I don't really know if her fate really worked so well either. Roger was different as well but I thought he at least reminded me of other characters from the series.

As for the other characters, I thought all the ladies were quite captivating on the screen. David was suitably odd though I wish Jackie Earle Haley was more manic and panicky as Willie Loomis.

One of the biggest "characters" of the series was the mansion Collinwood and it was great to be able to see a big budget Tim Burtion gothic take on it. What were only limited sets are now really brought to life (literally at some points). Burton was actually fairly restrained I think, I didn't feel that he had overstepped and put too much of his stamp on it but just enough.

I have a hard time reviewing this though because I keep viewing it through the lens of the series. I thought it was entertaining and evocative enough and a solid "Tim Burton movie" and had a good amount of "Dark Shadows" throughout.

 

My local movie critics panned the film as not paying decent homage to the original DS property, but, after having seen the film today (I apologize for necro-ing the thread), I can unequivocally say that they were flat-out wrong. I only watched a handful of episodes of the original soap, but I was nevertheless able to recognize the series' gothic qualities in the film, which also reminded me in a lot of ways of Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Sleepy Hollow in terms of its tone.

The cast was phenomenal from top to bottom (even though I didn't recognize the individuals playing Carolyn, David, Victoria, and Willie), and I especially liked Helena Bonham Carter's performance as Hoffman; it was more understated than I was expecting, but in a very refreshing way.

Even though Tim Burton didn't have any input into either the screenplay or story treatment, the film nevertheless felt very much in his usual style, and had a number of twists that I didn't see coming (as well as a few that I did). The climax was a rousing rollercoaster of an experience and set things up perfectly for a sequel (although it's been said that they weren't intentionally doing so and were merely trying to evoke the soap-opera qualities of the original series).

I'd give it a solid 'A', and it is definitely something that I wouldn't mind spending money on to own once it comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray.