Click here for the review of Dark Shadows

SPOILERS must be tagged with the "SPOILER" tag!

Here's how James has rated the previous films of Tim Burton that he's reviewed. Interesting how some of the films considered to be Burton's best, like Batman and Ed Wood, are given lukewarm reviews while the one considered his worst, Planet of the Apes, is rated higher than Mars Attacks and Sleepy Hollow.

Here's how James has rated Tim Burton's films from the reviews I've found going from worst to best:

Mars Attacks! (1996) - 2 stars
Sleepy Hollow (1999)- 2 stars
Dark Shadows (2012) - 2 stars
Batman (1989) - 2.5 stars
Ed Wood (1994) - 2.5 stars
Planet of the Apes (2001) - 2.5 stars
Sweeny Todd (2007) - 2.5 stars
Big Fish (2003) - 3 stars
Corpse Bride (2005) - 3 stars
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) - 3 stars
Alice in Wonderland (2010) - 3 stars

I'm guessing Tim Burton's films generally don't do too much for you, James?

I'm not a huge Burton fan myself, I think most of his films are too much style not enough substance, I liked the Batman films, Planet Of The Apes and Mars Attacks, but that's about it.

No offense meant to Mr. Berardinelli, but his negative review of Dark Shadows is almost a signal to me that it is actually worth seeing. As ck100 pointed out above, his ratings of Tim Burton films have always been a little odd.

Early buzz is mixed to poor though, and we all know that the bad reviews don't really come onto Rotten Tomatoes until after the critical consensus goes up. I was a pretty big Burton fan, but he's been slipping in the last few years. Seems more pre-occupied with checking the Burton checkboxes (weirdness, mostly) than with making a good movie. I'll still see this eventually, but doubt that it will be in a theater.

I hated Alice in Wonderland so I'll be skipping this one.

Agreed. Burton seems to now be sort of just going through the motions (I do, however, consider "Sweeney Todd" his best film), and this is the first film of his on which I'm not quite sold. In the trailer, it seems to be going for a "Beetlejuice" type of tone... but to me it came off more like those awful "Addams Family" movies from the '90s.

Agreed. Aside from Sweeney Todd, for his past few films he seems to have been coasting.

While I find Ed Wood to behis best film, my personal favorite Burton film is Beetlejuice. Saw that when I was 9. I'd been to the movies many times before then of course. But that was one of the first times when I truly found myself immersed in the world the movie had created. Loved the humor too as I've always had a dark sense of humor. So I went to see it with my mom and my cousin who was staying for the weekend. Then I got the itch to see it again so my mom and I went again. Then my dad wanted to see it so him and I went which brought the number of times I saw Beetlejuice in the theater to 3. Then I videoptaped it off of HBO. Lost the VHS many years ago. But recently came across the DVD on sale and bought it . Watched it and found it still just as enjoyable.

Hey! I actually think the Addams Family flicks are a bit underrated if anything (the sequel was better) and Ricci totally steals both movies.

Burton has been lazy for years, the guy is clearly out of original ideas and on auto-pilot. Hopefully this is the last Burton/Depp combo for a while. The best thing for him at this point is a major bomb, his last 3 or 4 films have earned at least a couple of billion at the BO worldwide but he needs to be brought back to earth as he is nothing more than a director for hire right now, really disappointing as I believe the guy still has some real talent buried somewhere.

It's interesting in this thread thus far that no one has mentioned A Nightmare Before Christmas. IMO, that is easily the best film directed by Tim Burton that I have seen, with Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands a close second and third, where his unique sensibilities and sense of style are most effectively channelled. Somehow, Burton's quirks seems to be especially suited to animation (I have not seen Corpse Bride, but the previews reminds me of A Nightmare Before Christmas, and not just in the outward similarities in animation style).

On that note, Burton's next film to be released (tentatively for October 2012, currently in post-production) is another animated effort: Frankenweenie (a remake of an earlier short film directed by Burton).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1142977/

Correction, The Addams Family was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, not by Tim Burton.

I saw the trailer for Frankenweenie, looks awfully similar to Corpse Bride(same animation style)

Actually, Henry Selick directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, while Burton wrote and produced the film.

Manohla Dargis gives a positive review of the film:

http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/mo ... 78DB389962

While I don't think James reviewed Batman Returns, he does say in his Batman review that "[t]he best thing that can be said about Batman is that it led to Batman Returns, which was a far superior effort." So count that as one of the Burton movies James likes, maybe even his favorite?

Seeing them all listed out like that, it hits me--Burton hasn't made many really good films. Ed Wood is great, Beetlejuice is really good, Batman is solid, and from there it's a bunch of "not bad really" and "pretty decent I suppose" until you get to the truly unfortunate (looking at you, Planet of the Apes). Hell, the best "Tim Burton movie" is probably Nightmare Before Christmas--one that he didn't even direct!

I was aware, I just made a quick sentence how I liked those movies and then changed the subject back to why Burton is thoroughly annoying these days.

BATMAN RETURNS is my favorite Burton film, as well as my favorite pre-Nolan BATMAN movie.

Burton is more of an interesting director than a great one. His films almost always have an idiosyncratic vibe. I would have thought DARK SHADOWS was a perfect match for him but he messed it up.

So can we expect a Batman Returns review sometime in the future?

I agree, The Adams Family was a great show and a great pair of movies. Period.

Other than the laughable casting of HBC, 'Sweeny Todd is probably my favourite Burton film, closely followed by Corpse Bride and Batman (Nightmare before wha?) I've yet to finish watching Alice In Wonderland, since it was just an exercise in horse-shit.

Movie Bob at the escapist suggested that Burton should just stop... making movies. I agree 100%. What a toss pot.

While I'm at it, I just need to say that Depp was great as Captain Sparrow... but he needs to buck his shit up and go back to playing roles like Donnie Brasco or Hunter S Thompson. You know, when he was worth a damn.

Just got back from seeing this film. Wow. Ole James has truly fallen off his horse here. The only 'mess' I found was in the marketing of this film. I was utterly slack jawed by the time this film ended. It was ANYTHING but a comedy. It should have been advertised more as a straight horror/fantasy than the satire laced trailers, which do it absolutely no justice. I guess I need to simplify it for James and every other critic who have no understanding of subtext and how it can be layered in a singular story. In short, this film is a love letter to the Gothic genre as well as the television series, which it pays enormous tribute too. Burton does a brilliant job of weaving a Gothic tale of witchcraft that not only covers the tragic origins of Barnabus Collins, but plays to the familiar themes of horror films in the 60's and 70's. It's not a difficult film to follow at all. It's charm and intent is immediately recognizable and is in no way lost in direction and purpose. You laugh where you should. Cringe where you should. And are engaged where you should. It's a complete experience that was far more visceral than what I was expecting. I think critics like James made up their minds what they were going to see by the trailers. But when they didn't get that, instead of blaming the marketing, they chose to fault the movie! Essentially whoever was in charge of marketing this film as a comedy and parking it next to the Avengers should be fired and banned from Hollywood for life. This is a very good movie and a very unique entry by the Burton/Depp team. Not your A-typical treatment by any means. If your looking for an engaging story that is both dramatic but also clever, well your in for a good time. I strongly believe this film will find an afterlife on DVD. It has no chance against the Avengers behemoth. Ignore the critics and go see this for yourself. It's an excellent film.