Dark Shadows (2012/Warner Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
B- & C+ Sound: B- & C+ Extras: C Films: C
Back in
the 1960s, a long running partnership began on ABC with a smart producer named
Dan Curtis, who suggested a new kind of soap opera to the network. Since ABC was willing to try something
different, they launched his supernatural show and the result was Dark Shadows, taped in black and
white. It eventually went to color, but
really became a huge hit when a vampire named Barnabas Collins showed up. A few attempts in the decades since to
relaunch the show as a franchise on TV fell through, so the drama was picked up
by Tim Burton and a new 2012 Dark
Shadows feature film is the result.
Curtis
actually convinced MGM to do two feature films after the original show wrapped,
so this is the third film based on the series, but with Johnny Depp as the lead
vampire, they decided to set it all in 1972 and make it a comedy. The plot of a vampire returning to his old ways
in and against modern trends was also the plot of Clive Donner’s underrated Old Dracula (1974, reviewed elsewhere
on this site) with David Niven, but the two films only have so many common
denominators.
Depp at
least tried to do something fun with the material, but Burton has not made a good
film since Ed Wood and has yet to
get his edge back. The sad thing is that
he almost did here. The budget is here,
the cast (including Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green and Helena Bonham Carter) is
just fine and at first, the film was moving along well and had some
entertaining moments. Then it starts to
loose its way and even do contradictory things that I cannot reveal without
spoiling the storyline (Barnabas does not fit in, has to fight old enemies) or
its eventual illogic.
However,
it has a nice feel for 1972 and is fun (including Green riding around in a
period car with A Summer Place
playing on the soundtrack in a sly reference to the Charlton Heston film The Omega Man (1971, also reviewed on
this site and the film remade recently as I
Am Legend with Will Smith) and the casting of the classic characters makes
sense. Then it starts to get distracted
with jokes and suddenly, an action explosion happens and the film becomes a
goofy 1980s action film, the humor dries up and the ending recycles Death Becomes
Her more than it should have.
That’s a
shame because some of this is Burton’s first real Burtonesque work in many,
many years and the cast definitely has chemistry, but the Seth Grahame-Smith
screenplay just runs out of energy and ideas, so the film slowly implodes into
a mess and becomes one big disappointment.
Fans of the serious version of the show or its attempted revivals will
not be happy much to begin with, but this is one of the year’s big misses and
that’s a shame because they were on the way to a fun film.
It also
does not have the guts or daring of the better parts of Old Dracula.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer may suffer a bit because of
obvious digital work and style choices, but this was shot on 35mm film and has
a pretty good look to it throughout otherwise thanks in part to its skilled Director
of Photography Bruno Delbonnel, A.F.C., A.S.C., but maybe the look is a bit
clichéd too. Still, it looks better than
the softer anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image DVD also included.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix has some good soundfield moments, but
sound can still be more towards the front speakers than I would like and though
some moments are dialogue-oriented, the full sound eventually kicks in
again. Some sound moments (like said
explosion) are boring, so that does not help and the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix
on the DVD is even poorer.
Extras include
Deleted Scenes (most of which would have been preferable to some that stayed in
the film), Ultraviolet Copy, Maximum Movie Mode and nine behind-the-film Focus
Points (8 on the Blu-ray, 1 on the DVD) that shows the making of the film and
the people who made it happen.
- Nicholas Sheffo
