Dark Shadows: Johnny Depp and Tim Burton Jump The Shark

Continuing this weekend’s entertainment theme, this post is about the disaster that is Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s (B&D) Dark Shadows. I never saw the original show but I can tell you that it could not have been this bad. There really is nothing good about this movie – the strong cast is totally wasted, the acting is terrible, the scenes don’t flow together, the visuals are nothing new, and the story makes no sense.

Tim Burton’s movies always have a stronger focus on the visuals and the story always takes a backseat. That’s not a surprise since Burton is a former animator and more interested in showing a world rather then exploring it. Nothing wrong with that but the problem that has become obvious is that his visuals have become repetitive and since the story was always secondary, there is nothing attractive about his movies anymore.

Johnny Depp, on the other hand, has completely lost his mind. I am a big fan of the man but someone needs to take him to Sparrow-rehab. Depp always came up with weird characters but since most people never saw his movies, it was easy for him to transition from one weird movie to a relatively normal movie. The problem with Jack Sparrow is that because he was part of such a successful franchise, there is a lot more temptation (probably mostly financial) to keep repeating the same style. Depp has certainly done that: since the second Pirates movie, he has made nine movies and played a similar character in five of them and plays a similar character in his next movie – that is a bit much and is getting pretty tiring.

Finally, let’s talk about the B&D films – actually, let’s not. These guys need to take a break from each other. Burton needs to go and make something that has nothing to do with visuals and Depp needs to make some movies that have nothing to do with makeup – I really hope he doesn’t use his standard shtick in Wes Anderson’s next movie. As a combination, its undeniable, these guys have jumped an overly stylized shark.