Dark Shadows (2012)

A quick note to try to get me up and moving on this blogging thing... My friend and I (and her young children) went out to see Dark Shadows last night. Unlike her I'd seen the original show and movies and liked them... and I have a continuing dislike of Tim Burton as somewhat of a one trick (Edward Gorey) pony. So I wasn't really expecting to like it but I was in the mood for gleaning whatever bits of goodness I could from it. So, with that preamble... yeah, I thought it was a mess. But I had fun anyway. It's not nearly the whacky spoof people/ads have made it out to be. The comedy bits kind of fade in and out and there aren't many of them. Some scenes are funny-ish... others are played straight. The whole movie is kind of odd that way... the individual scenes work fine, mostly... but together they seem mismatched. Oddly, it also it has something of a gothic pace to it... slow and kind of chatty... up until the big dorky fight at the end. Also, what's up with the daughter character... every scene with her felt like an infomercial for the actress... Chloe somebody. Still, I kind of enjoyed the movie... but not for the reasons folks usually enjoy movies. I liked all the touches to evoke the 70s... the clothes, the music, the cars, etc. It did remind me a lot of the original series... in a kind of twisted/backwards way. If I were a bigger fan of the original I'd probably hate it, but as it is it did bring out a good bit of the flavor I remember. It's not disrespectful of its source, just confused, misguided... poorly conceived. I wish they'd either played it straight or spoofed it up a LOT more than they did... as it is it sits on an uncomfortable fence the leaves it as a curiosity, and that's all.