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graycardinalI saw Dark Shadows yesterday -- more by accident than intent -- and came away both entertained and conflicted.
Important context first: while I am broadly familiar with the characters and premise of the Dark Shadows franchise, I've actually seen/read virtually none of the actual series or its spinoffs. (I think I caught about half an episode of the short-lived prime time revival, and may have glanced into a tie-in book briefly a long time ago.) So my opinions about how the series' existing fan base may react to this film are, for the most part, purest guesswork.
So. The mainstream critical buzz, such as it is, seems to think the film is too deliberately funny for its own good. I disagree. First, no one who's been actively reading modern paranormal fantasy/romance should be put off by the movie's comic elements; the characters and dialogue here are, if anything, less infused with snark than most narrators of paranormals. Second: this is 2012, the movie's set in 1972 (and possibly '73 or '74, depending on how long you figure it takes Barnabas to have Collinwood totally rebuilt), and Barnabas himself is from the 1770s. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are playing the fish-out-of-water card for everything it's worth, and for the most part, the humor-by-anachronism works well enough. (That said, the soundtrack is about as subtle as a seafood-cannery explosion, with major contributions from the Carpenters and Alice Cooper, the latter showing up in person!)
As a straight-up vampire Gothic, I think the film at least partly succeeds -- but not necessarily in the way Burton and Depp intended. What Dark Shadows looks most like to me is a remarkably brisk modern version of an old-school Vincent Price horror yarn...and as a Vincent Price homage, it's very nearly perfect. Depp's Barnabas catches more than a glimmer of the classically sardonic Price wit, and it's when the rest of the ensemble is interacting with Depp -- mostly one-on-one -- that the supporting players get their chance to shine. But the Price model has its limitations; given the present film's ensemble cast, only Eva Green as Angelique (Barnabas' nemesis) gets enough screen time to really build a character arc, and as a result most of the secondary players end up with one-note characterizations. That's especially frustrating in the case of Bella Heathcote in a dual role as Barnabas' once and future love interest; the film is too busy elsewhere to properly build up their romance. Only the uniformly high caliber of the acting talent -- again, often a hallmark of the old Price Gothics -- saves the Collins family's appeal, and helps rescue the movie as a whole.
Whether classic Dark Shadows fans will be satisfied is hard to know. The present film treats Angelique as Barnabas' deadly if sexually irresistable nemesis, and Victoria/Josette as his destined One True Love; from the little I know of the canon (and of soap operas in general), I suspect both characterizations were much more nuanced in their original incarnations. The modern Collinses, as noted above, get barely enough screen time to really distinguish themselves -- of the group, I'd cite young Gulliver McGrath's David as the best-realized, although Willie Loomis and Jonny Lee Miller do reasonably well with what they're given. Perhaps most to the point, the movie -- despite a foreseeable stinger in its final shot -- is remarkably self-contained. It's clearly meant as a one-off rather than a franchise relaunch, and the film's ending feels more final than one really wants from a soap-opera saga. (Here again, the Vincent Price homage, intentional or otherwise, is strikingly evident.)
On balance: it's absolutely a watchable, entertaining movie, and I think Depp makes a decent Barnabas. But it's a popcorn-and-marshmallows matinee, not a character-driven romance, and should be viewed with that in mind.
