Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Release!!

Star Trek had sub-par episodes, and great episodes, just like DS.

Original Star Trek doesn't get respect either.   I've even heard the same old DS-ish "camp" dismissal used against it.   We've got an increasingly superficial society in which surface polish is valued more than human drama and substance.

To retzev, who was nice enough to ask my opinion on the new film in a PM--  I can receive PMs here, but not send them, for whatever reason.   I'd like to say this to Taeylor, too....

retzev-- I can't get to the theater to see it yet.  Thanks for asking.

Angelique's "shattering" (for want of a better word) didn't surprise me.  Even though she was a powerful witch, one who could live for hundreds of years, if not into infinity if something didn't disrupt that, she wasn't immortal.  Neither is Barnabas.  He can live into infinity if things don't cross (pardon the pun) his path, like a wooden stake, sunlight, silver (I loved the scene where he "pings" the fork and discovers it won't cause him to burst into flame because the original had been cheaply duplicated and then pawned), or garlic-laden pasta.  Vampires aren't immortal.  Barnabas, Elizabeth, et. al., found Angelique's Achilles heals.  Being hundreds of years old, her soft, supple facade turned into what she really was from the ravages of time:  dry and stale.  I thought it was a brilliant way to show her demise, rather than having her age into some old crone (which would've been a good way to dispatch her, but it's been done before, including in the OS).  But then again, is she really, totally, completely dead?  No matter the various ways she was offed in the OS, she always managed to return.  If there is a sequel to this wonderful film, don't necessarily expect her not to show up (and don't expect the Collins family not to rebuild Collinwood - I'm sure, after Barnabas had them arise back to prominence, they had purchased home-owners insurance).

Gerard

www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=film&article=996

From this week's Bay Area Reporter in San Francisco, my review of Depp Shadows: includes a tribute to Jonathan Frid.

Some interesting weekend predictions from Box Office Mojo (including DS pulling in about $14.6 million):

Forecast

We shall see how things play out...

7 days 11 hours 5 minutes 48 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

The Dictator dropped on Thursday to 2.8 million from over 4 yesterday. I think WB will be ok with 15 million this weekend. http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/dictator-off-to-slow-domestic-start-international-box-office-begins-stronger/

More from the special effects team-mouseover photos. http://www.studiodaily.com/2012/05/dark-shadows/

All of that is really interesting! Thanks so much for posting the link, jimbo. 

I was really fascinated when I saw in one of the online featurettes that in addition to the outdoor set they built a 1/3 scale model of Collinwood and also used it for many shots. And I have to say they blended everything seemlessly. 

7 days 15 hours 10 minutes 50 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

Review by Mark Rainey:  Moments of Shadow

On Thursday DS brought in $1,689,368, bringing its current domestic gross to $38,138,421.

(And wow, yes, jimbo, dropping 31.4% doesn't look like a good sign for The Dictator - but who knows...)

Thursday Box Office

Now we have to wait until Monday afternoon until we get the actuals for the weekend. Until then it's all estimates. And it will be interesting to see how the film opens in Mexico, Brazil and Japan...

I have high hopes for Japan. If it does well there, who knows? Can you say Anime series boys and girls?  Manga books?  It's not a probability, but it seems like a reasonable hope.

From my point of view, a film that takes in 75 million in one week is hardly a bomb. Hollywood needs to spend less money making these films. DS could easily have been made for less money.

I have high hopes for Japan. If it does well there, who knows? Can you say Anime series boys and girls?  Manga books?  It's not a probability, but it seems like a reasonable hope.

I'm hoping for some quality doujinshi at least! I'd welcome an anime/manga style as long as it wasn't uber shounen.

For whatever it is worth. My nephew saw it on Wednesday. Never saw any version of Dark Shadows. Only knew of it because of me, and he was frightened of Barnabas and Angelique as a youngster. He just graduated from Pace college, and he liked it a lot. My best friend of all time, with only seeing Dark Shadows very few times with me when we were kids saw it and enjoyed it a lot  also.Hopefully, other non fans of the Original, Revival series will go and see it.

I went to a retailer today in search of the score.  And I could not find it.  I love it so much.  It's not perfect, but it would have been had Elfman just finished what he started in the last few seconds of Track 19.   

There is no real theme here, other than the "Love" Theme and "Widows' Hill," and I feel that appropriate since nothing can replace the original.  If I can find this CD in the stores, I will definitely pick it up.  I couldn't believe how little of Elfman's score actually made it into the final cut of the movie.  What was there was powerful, though.  It seems as if the middle part of the movie was carried by the 70s tracks.  To me, it seemed like a lot of those snippets of scenes, especially the ones that were seen during "Top of the World" were actually intended to be full scenes.  But they went the montage route to save time.  And while "Top of the World" was quite hilarious (and one of my favorite non-traditional things in the film), I felt that condensing those parts really took core parts our of the story, especially in regards to the Barnabas-Maggie relationship.  The Barnabas/Maggie-Vicki walk was great though, and that marks the 3rd time that has been done.  I guess it has become a necessity.  (And it's fine by me, since those scenes are some of my favorites in the previous incarnations.) 

I am planning on seeing DS again this weekend. I hope that it will pull in more money. Has it opened in all overseas markets???

Thanks again for everything everyone shares!