2. Reusing Actors
Offenders: Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny Elfman, Catherine O'Hara, Danny DeVito, Deep Roy, Michelle Pfeiffer This is another notable problem, and before you disagree with me, it should be treated as a problem. This and many other of the entries on this list are very restrictive of originality. Perhaps we'd have all been a lot more accepting of Dark Shadows if Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp hadn't been in it. It's not necessarily their fault, I just think that Burton's not really being all he could be. Sometimes just seeing the same faces over and over again just reminds you that you're going to be seeing the same cliches you've seen a dozen times before, which is a shame because Tim Burton is and always has been a really talented guy. Not only is hiring the same people over and over again a sure-fire way to have your work stereotyped and become far too recognisable (I dare say even predictable), but it just limits the potential Burton has. It doesn't matter if Johnny Depp suddenly turned up in a clown outfit and Helena Bonham Carter was a sweet kind innocent old woman in his next directorial outing, people are just going to see Tim Burton using the same actors he's already over-used. I love Helena and Johnny, but please, branch out a bit. But there's one more Burton cliche that is as laugh-out-loud funny in its predictability as it is tragic and heart-breaking in its lack of originality...