Dark Shadows

Well it's an Orange Wednesday cinerama extravaganza for the second week in a row for Kel and me.

After last weeks surprise enjoyment of the Indonesian ultimate fighting movie 'The Raid' it was a similar experience again as I have to admit to really enjoying Tim Burton's 'Dark Shadows'.

Like others I've been slowly losing faith in Burton, and while I have enjoyed a few of his films over the last few years (Sweeney Todd was acceptable I thought), I could argue that none of them have had the impact of some of his older classics (Mars Attacks/Sleepy Hollow/Big Fish).

Alice in Wonderland for example has very few redeeming qualities at all, and while I would jump to defend the right to anyone expressing themselves artistically, that would be the exception to the rule, and should have been aborted at the idea stage.

However, Dark Shadows on the other hand, is a very enjoyable romp indeed.

It's more akin to an Addams Family movie for a slightly older audience than a carbon copy homage to the original series that is the source material, but what is wrong with that?

It wasn't aired here in the UK anyway. So I very much doubt that any sort of sizeable number of people could make a comparison.

For most this will be a singular movie that has no ties to the past.

A stand alone Burton/Depp collaboration, and on that basis it is far better than a few I could mention.

It's not all fantastic though.

If I was to pick at something that annoyed me it would be the involvement of Helena Bonham Carter.

Her role just seems to have been welded on to give her some screen time and another mention on the IMDB website.

Sheer wasteful nepotism really.

I could have maybe let it slip past if she had some of her wonderful cleavage on show, but she didn't.

I mean c'mon.

Carter minus cleavage is pointless. 

Why do women think that us men sat through the costume dramas she was in?

Like I said. Pointless.

On the flip side of the coin, the bit I did very much like was another pointless part of the film, and that was the section that focused on Alice Coopers cameo.

Some have claimed the film to be disjointed, and this may be the portion that springs to their mind as it could be a mini promo video for Alice if you extracted it from the film.

A brilliant Burton directed Cooper promo vid at that though.

So while it does stand out, and it would be foolish to deny that, its inclusion didn't really derail the film at all.

Maybe the problem with Dark Shadows is that some can't see the wood for focussing on the trees.

Break anything down and you will find enough faults to put you off, but why go to that effort when instead you could just sit back, turn your brain off, and go with the flow and enjoy it for what it is.

A fun filled and daft movie with a ghoulish bent to it.