Here is a nice little piece about an extra from the film. 

David shares set with Jonny Depp

I'll have to see if I can spot him next time I see the film (which unfortunately will probably not be this coming weekend, so hopefully the weekend after).  I'm glad to hear he had a nice experience on the set.  I wonder why Hugo was so unpleasant- was it just a more hectic shoot, was Scorcese difficult, was it because of the 3D...  but I'm glad DS was pleasant!   

Thanks MB.  I was just poking around in BOM for some lifetime totals, because there've been a lot of articles the last few days implying that Depp isn't loved anymore and DS is a failure, etc. etc. because it couldn't knock one of the biggest blockbusters EVER from the #1 spot      But I hadn't seen today's total yet.  Mainly, we Depp fans were saying that if you take the 4 Pirates films and Alice In Wonderland out of the equation, the box office of the rest of his films haven't really been that extraordinary, and we shouldn't have expected DS to be an extraordinary box office hit.  Other than Platoon (one of Johnny's first films in which he had a very small role) and 21 Jump Street (in which he has a small uncredited cameo), he's only had 8 films that made over $100 million.  So, we just don't see DS as the sinking ship that some of the media would like to claim it is!  (And MB, I know you always like to point out the "failure" of The Tourist not really being a box office failure at all, but for the entertainment media, it makes a good story  )

Anyway, a couple of points.  First, DS's Sunday to Monday decline is about the same as that for The Avengers (-74.8% vs. -74.4%).  Second, another recent horror film, The Raven, which I thought looked pretty good from the trailers but which got ripped apart in the reviews, has made less than half of what DS has made already ($14.9 million).  Why isn't anyone ripping on John Cusack?    DS will probably pass Cabin In The Woods (currently at $39.9 million) this weekend.  This seems a lot of hoopla about nothing.  I would like to see DS top $100 million.  I don't think that is guaranteed- we'll have to see how sharply it drops.  But I think it will end up looking respectable compared to similar films in this genre.  Just MHO.

^ Oops yeah, I was going to add Dark Knight Rises to the list of blockbusters, but then I forgot when it was coming out and was too lazy to look it up!  Somehow I had the feeling it was coming out later in the year.  But it's July.  July is good for me- I do want to see it and that's my birth month 

Yayyy!!  Congrats to Uncle Roger for his part in reaching this milestone, and congrats to the forum!!

Cathy

Few little nitpicks, but thumbs up from me.

I think Willie actually apologizes for not picking her up at the train station, so he was clearly expecting her arrival.  I'm fine with her using an alias, as a combination of a fear that she might be sent back there and that Liz might fire her if she realizes her past.  I mean, maybe that exact scene could've worked better if she'd been rehearsing her introduction, and instead of looking up at a poster, she looked down at an ad that she was keeping with her papers, somehow (to remind herself of why she chose the name).  I dunno.  As I said, I loved this angle itself, and had no problem combining the two characters.  I just thought that one aspect- seeming to come up with the name on the fly- was clunky.

Okie dokie, after avoiding this thread and other sites with potential spoilers for a few days, I finally saw the movie today.  I just read all of your thoughts and was interested to see all of your views.

As for myself, I absolutely LOVED it.  I didn't expect to- as I mentioned in the other thread I'd been starting to get rather pessimistic these last few days.  But I now wonder what I was worried about- I shouldn't let reviews and other people's remarks get into my head like that!  But all in all, I probably loved the movie more than any here, with the possible exception of Taeylor 

Okay, so of course I do actually have some criticisms, so let me get those out of the way first.  As with many of you, I wished there had been a bit more of a backstory and buildup to Barnabas and Angelique's relationship.  As Prof. Stokes or someone mentioned- maybe some kind of montage of them kissing a bunch of times or something.  At the very least, when you think about the OS, we never actually *see* their backstory, but there is a conversation about it, and it's heavily implied that they'd definitely had their fun.  Here in the film, the conversation is far too brief.  As with many of you, I also wish there could've been more to Carolyn's secret before this sudden left-field reveal.  Someone did point out a few hints, which I admit I didn't really notice during the film.  I knew from Chloe's interviews that she had a secret, so that was the only reason I wasn't totally shocked by it, and I did see her backing away into the house and closing the front door, so I knew she was up to something, but I guess I wish it could've had at least a little more elaboration or foreboding.  And lastly, I agree that not enough was done with Roger's character.  Even if he was relegated to mostly standing around being snarky, I wished he could've at least had a bit more screen time doing that very thing. 

Oh, and I guess one more lastly, though it's more of a joke to myself than anything, I have always told people how I absolutely hated the scene in the Indy 2 movie where they rip the guy's beating heart out, and when I saw Angelique touching her chest like that, I had a feeling that that was what was going to happen-- ewwww    But it actually wasn't that bad, it was just that the thought of it kinda made me laugh because it reminded me of that scene I hate so much.  For that matter, it reminded me of Pirates 3, too, because there is a lot of time spent on a beating heart that they're all trying to stab, and I wonder if that was in any way intentional.

Okay, now on to the things I liked.  I had absolutely no problem with the tone of the film.  For me, this was not a comedy.  It was not a spoof or a parody, and I don't feel that it in any way tarnished the reputation of the OS.  I do think that the trailers should've been truer to the real tone- not to take out the comedy entirely, but just not to overdo it the way they did.  I LOVED the reveal of Magtoria!  My only teensy tiny nitpick with that is that she's rehearsing introducing herself, starts to say Maggie and then sees a poster that makes her change her name... but what had she said her name was when she answered the ad??  I mean, didn't she have to give a name??  So, maybe she'd seen a poster like that before and already decided on the alias, and looking up at it only reminded her of it, but for me it was something that brought me out of the film for a moment.  But otherwise, I had no problem with the idea that the character was not a carbon copy of either the Maggie or the Victoria that we know from the OS.  And Bella was great!  I really had no problem with Helena's Dr. Hoffman.  I'd heard in the very beginnings of the development of this film that it was going to be a small role, so I wasn't expecting her to have a huge amount of screentime, and I found it just right.  I loved the reveal of what she was up to- I didn't expect it and I felt that it fit very well into the story, and it provided a good justification for Barnabas' actions, which I already guessed because of the film score's track titles.  I was not as turned off by some at Julia's little "act".  Grayson Hall might never have done that but to my thinking, she probably would've wanted to.  One little point that probably won't make a difference to any of you, but that came to my mind, is that there is a similar scene with Mary Steenburgen in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, for a similar purpose, and I can't help but wonder if there was any possibility that was more than a coincidence.  In both cases, though, the intent was clearly manipulation, and I am fine with that as a plot point. 

I loved both Chloe's and Gully's portrayals- wished that both of them had more screen time.  Jackie Earle Haley was great in a small role, and I suppose some might say he was too buffoonish but I felt it struck a good balance.  I also thought Mrs. Johnson was a hoot, and I was glad that that wasn't overdone.

Unlike most of you, I loved Eva's performance.  While as I said above (and many of you have said), I wish there'd been a bit more to flesh out her motivations, but I found her to be a delicious and seductive villain.  Some thought the ending was too much but for me, the buildup to the final confrontation and then its execution were just right.  I wasn't sure at first what to make of the "facade cracking", but I guess I just went with it, and it felt all in character to me.  For me, her offering Barnabas her heart (though as I just mentioned above I have a little trouble with that image itself) was her final pleading gesture that revealed her true feelings and vulnerability in the end.  And he would not take it.  Maybe that's corny or too obvious to some of you, but I liked it.   

Well, unlike most of my thoughts above, which I think I was somewhat open-minded about, I admit that I'm heavily biased when it comes to Mr. Depp, so it should come as no surprise to any of you that I thought he was fantastic as Barnabas.  I would have preferred if he'd taken away one or two of the comments where even he should've realized that the family wasn't supposed to know he was from another century.  But other than a few such nitpicks, I didn't feel that his reactions made him out a fool.  But that's just me.  I felt that he perfectly conveyed the pain and the torture of what he'd been through, and I also felt he conveyed his love and loyalty to his family.  Even with Roger, when you think he's going to do something terrible to him, that something terrible turns out to be that he gets a lot of money to leave; while to Barnabas that would be a terrible fate, for Roger it's a godsend, lol!  (Poor David, though!)  Anyway, from my perspective, I think that he did honor to the character of Barnabas Collins.

Thanks for the tip about the IMAX showings.  I haven't yet looked at the schedule, and I confess that I may not get to see it tomorrow- it depends on what my work day is going to be like tomorrow.  But I will see it Sat., for sure.  I'm not surprised that IMAX screenings are going to favor The Avengers, and honestly, if you were a theater owner and saw how The Avengers was doing, would you do differently?    But we DS'ers will have our chance.

By the way, just saw somewhere in passing that the CBS This Morning hosts reported that Johnny and Tim will be on the show tomorrow.  I had it on for awhile this morning and didn't hear that announcement, but I missed large chunks of the show so I don't doubt what was reported.  Today, the DS cast is doing press junkets in London, so look for even MORE interviews to come out of this.  And then, in just a few more days, on to Tokyo!!  Quite a whirlwind of activities!

Finally, I got the DS Score yesterday (a day late, even though I'm an Amazon Prime member  ) and was enjoying it on my morning commute this morning!  I haven't decided yet whether to purchase the Soundtrack as mp3's, or wait until either a US release on CD will come later, or the import price will drop to something reasonable.  I'll probably go for the mp3's.