My wife and I saw the movie last night. She was not a fan of the original series when it aired the way that I was, and her first introduction (other than hearing me talk about it) was the revival series in 1991. I say that because I think she enjoyed the movie more than I did, and when I pointed out a few tidbits here and there it really seemed to add to her appreciation for the movie.
I freely admit that I WANTED to love this movie. I think part of my problem with it is that it didn't live up to my admittedly overblown expectations. I most certainly did not hate the movie, but I also didn't LOVE it.
I certainly do not think that the movie played as a parody of the original series. After all, any television show that has the audacity to use a photograph of Paul Stoddard in a coffin loses the right to be indignant about any perceived slights. And I also did not think that the movie was anywhere near as comedic as was initially feared. The commercials clearly were cut to make items appear more comedic than they really were. I think a great example is when Barnabas caught fire. I did not find that that scene played for laughs at all, and the aftermath with both David and Vicki was quite dramatic.
I thought a lot of the movie did work. I did not think that the Carolyn reveal was quite as "out of the blue" as others. I think there were multiple subtle hints. First, David's line about her at the breakfast table was clearly one of our first hints. "She makes noises like a cat." Second, I don't think the lingering shot of the painter installing a full moon when they were refurbishing Collinwood was an accident. I personally enjoyed the Vicki/Maggie blending, and I was REALLY captivated by Josette - from the first appearance of her ghost with the crabs coming out of her mouth to the role she played in Maggie's life. More on that in a bit.
I was not as put off as many others about the reimagining of Julia. I was not a card carrying member of the "Julia and Barnabas belong together" club, but I know a lot of fans wanted it. I think Burton and company tried to give many fans something to like about this movie. I have no qualms about having characters reinvented (look at Professor Stokes in House of Dark Shadows), and Julia's actions seemed pretty self consistent to me. She was willing to manipulate people to get what she wanted, so she manipulated Barnabas' naivety through hypnosis, stringing him along about his cure (which was NOT a stretch) and any other means (which some found objectionable).
Frankly, my biggest beef with the film was Angelique. I suppose the first scenes were meant to show that she had fixated on Barnabas at an early age (clearly before they'd become sexually active), but the movie would have been much better if they'd developed her character AT ALL. For me, Lara Parker's Angelique was at her scariest when she would be casting a spell with her wild eyes, and often having somebody else perform her bidding. We never really got a hint of that. The porcelain cracking of her facade was never explained or developed. And if she was really interested in destroying the Collins family (which was her stated motivation), I'm not sure I get the 180 years of inaction between burying Barnabas and sending a werewolf to bite Carolyn in her crib. Why fixate on Carolyn and David instead of Roger and Elizabeth? That said, I thought the payoff of having all of her machinations work together to bring about her downfall (Carolyn, Laura and Barnabas) was kind of cool.
I thought that there were quite a few nods to the original story that worked well. I LOVED Carolyn appearing on stage before Alice Cooper's "Ballad of Dwight Fry" to ask "Mommy, where's Daddy? He's been gone for so long, do you think he'll ever come home?" and the look on Liz' face as she hears that. I also liked what they did with Laura, although as others have pointed out she's kind of a hybrid phoenix/banshee (phoenshee? banix?). And the aforementioned Maggie Evans.
There has been much made of whether Burton and Depp were true "fans" of the series. I feel like they did something with this movie that I always secretly hoped for, and since I'm roughly the same age as Depp I completely understand. I always found Barnabas to be a sympathetic character who simply wanted to be with his true love. In many ways, what I loved about the series died when Josette "released" Barnabas during the Leviathan storyline. Despite two chances at revisiting this (HoDS and the 1991 revival series), Dan Curtis never gave Barnabas always left Barnabas one step away from reuniting with Josette. To me, this movie finally provided that. I absolutely LOVED the way they showed Josette driving Maggie back to reunite with Barnabas, and for the first time ever Barnabas gets his "happy" ending. That said, I wished the movie had some kind of epilogue. The last we see of Liz and the kids is them looking at a burning Collinwood. What becomes of Barnabas and Josette? Oh, and what about Roger, who's COMPLETELY wasted in this movie?
In retrospect, this was a no-win situation for Burton. This movie already looks like he tried to cram in more than he should have, and I've already seen people lamenting the absence of other characters. In all, I'm happy I saw it, and happy that it got made, but I think it was just OK.
Topic: Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Release!! (Read 348840 times)