I, of course, loved the Depp/Burton film. I thought it was a wonderful tribute to DS and that's what it was: a tribute. Maybe the comedic approach of Barnabas being a fish out of water, trying to comprehend life 200 years later was a bit whatever (I can't put the right thoughts or words to it), but it was far more realistic than the previous incarnations (the OS and '91) where Barnabas gets released and within 48 hours he's knocking at Collinwood, understanding zippers and the latest episodes of
Green Acres or
The Golden Girls. Depp/Burton's concept regarding this situation, in my view, more correct. Characters needed more fleshing out, and it appears they were before editing placed chunks on the cutting-room floor. And, as far as I'm concerned, a straight take on the Barnabas story, remade for the umpteenth-millionth time, would not have worked. The original was the original; it had been copied many times over, including in the banal Twilight thing. Doing it again as a strict drama would've appeared as nothing more than a rip-off of Twilight, a way of cashing in. Where the studio failed was in marketing.
So it was, and it wasn't, "our" DS. Neither was '91 in what it did with some of the characters. I never liked how '91 turned Maggie into a tart, or Willie into a bumbling sidekick. Nothing stays the same. The latest
Star Trek films have taken the original material and placed it in an alternate universe. Lots of fans were outraged that Spock's mother, Amanda, was killed. You think irrate fans posting on message boards were upset with the D/B DS film? You should've seen what they posted about the ST film - they wanted Abrams arrested, tried and executed for heresy. But the first film was enough of a money-making success to bring about a second one, and I'm sure it'll also be filled with heresy. Simply redoing the same stories over and over and over again won't work. Would upset DS fans remained upset if the D/B DS film was basically a remake of HoDS? HoDS also strayed from the series (although it was closer in the original intent of the Barnabas story - monster kills, monster is caught, monster is killed; 13 weeks done and on to the next plot-line).
No, the DS "franchise" is alive and doing well. This year, there are three "festivals" scheduled: the one in San Diego that's already done, the cruise (the "official" one) and another at Lyndhurst (that, if I'm right, is more focused on '91). The D/B DS film pulled in nine figures in the box office. That hardly makes is a financial "dud." I'd love to see a sequel. Barnabas and Vicki now share the same lifestyle, as does Julia. David's spectral mother has returned. There's now a werewolf in their midst. Angelique has been defeated (or has she?) and the Collinses look to rebuild. So many juicy things! And it's still the 1970's, so we can have soundtracks from Bread and Elton John and people dealing with that new CBS series about a family living at 704 Hawser Street in Queens, NYC. It would be so much fun, like DS meets
American Graffiti. Plus, you've got a bunch of monsters and spooks thrown in, just like the OS.
The D/B DS film had so many wonderful things in it. I will say that the opening credits was among the best. It set the tone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRYy8poaJwgBrilliant. Simply brilliant. It wasn't our Robert Cobert opening music, but it was brilliant. It was the train ride of Vicki just as it was in the OS and in '91, and done much better than DC did in both his versions. Brilliant.
Gerard