5 Tim Burton Films That Wasted Their Potential

3. Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows has a lot going for it. Fundamentally, despite being an expensive reboot, the film has a nice sincerity to it that abolishes much sense of cynical committee thinking, and rather, feels like a venture lovingly overseen by both Burton and Johnny Depp. Indeed, there is much respect for the original soap opera here, but this is ironically where the problems stem from.

Primarily, Burton seemingly couldn’t remove himself from the serial-like nature of the source material. Instead of a compact narrative, Dark Shadows feels more like a compilation of vaguely related scenes taken from the show. It adapts half-a-dozen plotlines and clumsily attempts to truncate and squeeze them into a two-hour movie, rendering things untidy both narratively and tonally.

In addition to its earnestness, it has the usual positive staples of a Tim Burton film. The cast and their interactions are great, and you’ll likely be wishing for more of it; Helena Bonham Cater in particular lacks screen time, but Johnny Depp gives his most charming performance in a Burton project since Ed Wood. The production design, makeup and general look of the film also, are all nicely spooky.

While at its emotional core there is a love story, there will typically always be around three other things to distract you from that. Depp’s love interest, incidentally, erratically vanishes and reappears throughout the film, as do various subplots regarding her troubled past, the family’s fishing company, and their nephew’s dead Mother.

A multi-strand story can work if the elements are somehow cleverly interwoven, but storylines pop up only at the film’s convenience, filling Dark Shadows with several unresolved matters and odd contrivances.