Dark Shadows (2012)
I had so many conflicting thoughts going into this movie. On one hand, wow where those trailers bad. I mean they were just odious and they managed to turn off both old fans and people who had never heard of the series. And I quickly grew tired of Helena Bonham Carter going on and on about how terrible the original series was
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I was disappointed in the movie, mainly because it seemed they didn't know what kind of tone to take with it, and the plot didn't seem to go anywhere - there were all sorts of dropped plot threads and then the ending seemed tacked on. You can do that kind of stuff in a soap opera, but a movie needs more structure.
Also I got the impression that there was *lot* of footage left on the cutting room floor, including a subplot involving Barnabas's relationship with young David which I would have loved to have seen!
I've seen the fish-out-of-temporal-water plot done well once - in a little known British series from the 60s called Adam Adamant Lives!, which managed to strike the balance between funn and sad. I'm not sure how many writers can manage that balancing act.
One thing, the movie inspired me to start buying the DVDs and (re)-watch the original series (some of which I've seen and some of which I never managed to.)
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I wonder if the 70s kitsch is a particularly American thing? The BBC did an excellent rendition of the 70s in their version of Life on Mars. (And since I've referred to two BBC series as doing right what the DS movie tried to do and did wrong, I wonder if the best way to get a modern Dark Shadows wouldn't be to let the BBC do a remake! The essential story wouldn't suffer by transferring it over to the other side of the Atlantic.)
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