what's notable is that in nearly every review...good, bad, or indifferent...is the almost universal opinion that the bulk of the cast, minus depp and green, went largely underused. i wonder what the solution would have been or even if there was one?


and also somewhat ironic given that the original series, when major characters disappeared for days or even weeks at a time, suffered from the same flaw.

true...

without the baggage and expectations "we" brought to the film to a general audience it probably reads as the typical burton folly.

a bit all over the place but otherwise a self-contained world. they're not spun out on the possibility(or lack thereof)sequels. no one who i know(oustside fandom)who saw it was "confused". they just accepted it on it's own weird terms.

while i found the vicki/maggie merger highly disorienting they thought nothing of it. she was just some girl using an alias. neither name meant anything to them. ditto the carolyn werwolf "reveal". while i found it repugnant they just saw it as another weird element in an already weird story. they had no emotional jolt from it. and without knowing the elaborate history of the barnabas/julia relationship on the series she was just some pill-popping lady doctor who gave a vampire a bl**j*b. they certainly didn't find it as jarring as fans certainly did.

so without any preconceived notions it was what it was. and while "we" waited for five years with baited breath, devouring every press clip and photograph, for them it's just another movie they saw among hundreds of others.

i suppose it's a moot point now but why was monica rich kossan potentially associated with a 1991 reunion?

so where are these types of numbers leaving the film?

not a blockbuster. not a flop. a "modest hit"?

They've already been replacing (with other movies) the billboards, and ads on buses and bus stops, in Chicago over the last several days. 

it's happened in new york as well...

for a few weeks "they" were looking down on us from everywhere. now they're gone. a little moment in time and now they'll begin to retreat from the public consciousness and become "ours" again soon.

and for whatever this means when i went to see it wednesday at 7:00pm there were only about 20 people in the theater.

i'm on the fence with paul stoddard but that's definitely woodard and mcquire...

i guess because gerringer and patrick are deceased they could use their likenesses without paying a royalty?

even with multiple viewings vicki's trajectory to collinwood is impossible to work into a coherent timeline...

she(i guess she's still "maggie" at this point)escapes from windcliff, then we see her(still wearing the same wet clothes)in a diner with the ghost of josette reading the advertisement for the governess position. so it would seem that virtually no time had passed.

so again how did she apply for the position? was she homeless at this point? how did she even have the money for trainfare if she was a mental hospital escapee? where and when did she get the little blue suitcase and all the cute early 1960's dresses and tights and shoes?

i know we're not supposed to focus on such mundane things but they took the trouble to create this rather elaborate backstory for her and then through some sloppy writing/continuity gaffes made it sort of nonsensical.