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Is it just me or are Burton’s movies less interesting as they go along? I’m still not sure what to make of this movie after viewing it today. All fingers should point to me really liking it, but I guess I’m underwhelmed. Great cast, great art direction, GREAT ending – but somehow – I feel like there was just something missing. I felt nothing after watching it. Those lyrics didnt help much either.
Me thinks this will be a stinker at the box office, as the theater I saw it at was less than a third full and some people got up and left before the twenty minute mark.
Anyone else see it yet?
I agree with you. It was one of the most boring movies I have ever seen. The intro was another computer generated one like in Charlie and the Chocolate factory. The songs were shit. Joanna, Joanna, blah blah, blah, shut the fk up. Honestly I fell asleep, missed the part where he kills the judge’s buddy, the fat guy. There were a few bits that were funny, and I did like the ending. And Pirelli was okay. I think I had enough of Tim Burton. Enough with the black and white stripes already. Black and white style film with color flashbacks. One trick pony. It’s supposedly getting great reviews, etc…
Yeah, I know my review is as bad as the movie. On the bright side reading this didn’t cost you 10 bucks.
I’m a Tim Burton fan, always been, always will be I guess. You combine this with the wonderful score/songs and lyrics by M.Sondheim, I’m definitely in. Critics are quite positive (even the early European critics, that most of the time disliked recent Burton works – no offence, but they are not many American critics that I take seriously). It doesn’t mean I will absolutely love it, if it has flaws, I will certainly point them out. But I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy the experience. You can call me biased but it’s not like I don’t defend my point of view with valid arguments when I have to.
And yes indeed, punchingboy, your review is extremely bad. Actually, it’s more a point a view, it doesn’t deserve to be called a “review”. Internet message boards tend to mix up those two notions…
You guys are certainly in the minority.
I absolutely LOVED it and think it’s the best thing Burton has done since 1994.
Most critics also believe this, as the film is being raved across the board and now is one of the best reviewed films of the year.
The film will be nominated for a crapload of Oscars and I can see Depp winning.
Very illuminating thoughts people have on what is clearly Burton’s greatest film since “Ed Wood.” Not that that is a very high bar seeing as how most of his output following that masterpiece has primarily consisted of misfires (I am excepting “Big Fish,” of course). I also disagree with these snide dismissals of Sondheim’s brilliant work. As a dramatist/lyricist, Sondheim is leagues ahead of his contemporaries, stage and screen.
Depp will loose the Oscar to Daniel Day Lewis – my prediction. I guess people are in very distict camps: Burton lovers, Sondheim lovers and your average movie goer. These parties rarely mingle…
I have noticed over the years, that Burton seems to mis-judge dramatic beats in his movies. I see so much potential for emotional moments (Billy Crudup confronting the woman he belives his father was having an affair with in BIG FISH, springs to mind first) and with such a rich tale of revenge and isolation- I feel none of it with SWEENEY. The moment that should be the most impactful is just rushed along. In the case of SWEENEY, the flashback to his life before returning to London. Maybe it’s not in the musical, maybe it is, but that is the core of the charecter’s drive – and it was not conveyed the way it could have been.
Now I can enjoy a flawed film and I do enjoy this one, somewhat. But I think Burton peaked with ED WOOD.
Well, that’s your opinion and you’re definitely entitled to it but I think you’ll find that you’re in the minority with that one. I think you’re off base thinking that only Burton lovers and Sondheim lovers are the one two groups that will enjoy this movie. It’s a great movie.. simple as that. If you want emotional beat, one has only to watch the endings to “Edwars Scissorhands”, “Big Fish” or now “Sweeney Todd”. Can you honestly say that you felt nothing at the end of “Sweeney Todd” especially with that powerful final image. In one single frame Burton captures more emotion than any writer could with a hundred words. Burton is one of the best directors working today and I hope this leads to his first Oscar nomination (as I’m sure it will).
Yeah, opinions are like – well – we all know the saying…
I thoroughly loved the ending of SWEENEY, in fact, it was the most satisfying moment in the film. But as I said, I feel like the middle moments are rushed. I do not think he knows how to hit home the emotional impact in his movies – with a few exceptions – and certainly not since ED WOOD. All of this comes from a once die hard Burton fan, mind you.
But as I said, I feel like the middle moments are rushed.
What aspects of the movie would you have Burton expand upon?
Not so much “expand” moments, but I think that some of dramatic moments in his past few films have been poorly staged, blocked and edited. I feel like he’s in a hurry to get to the good stuff and never lets something that should make an impact – make the impact. I do not think things had to be expanded, because the material was there – he just missed conveying it properly.
I felt that SWEENEY had it’s moments of impact for sure, but they were the bloody, revengful set pieces (though I loved the “By The Sea” sequence – it was perhaps my favorite) . I’m referring to some of smaller, subtle moments that I think are incapable for the director to handle.
Specifically, I refer to the flashback sequence of Todd’s life before returning to London. That entire montage was slapdash – especially when you consider the rest of the film. That was Sweeny’s entire motivation and in the hands of a more capable filmmaker, those moments should rip your heart out, especially by the conclusion of the story – and it didn’t – not for me, anyway. And I blame that on Burton’s mishandling of the flashback sequence.
SWEENEY could have been something grand, but not with Burton at the helm.
I feel like he’s in a hurry to get to the good stuff…
But doesn’t it take at least an hour to where Todd is slicing people’s necks? That hardly seems rushed to me.
Specifically, I refer to the flashback sequence of Todd’s life before returning to London. That entire montage was slapdash…
Well, considering that the dialogue from the flashback sequence was sung, i.e., music from the stage play, I’m not sure if Burton was ready to take a digression from the original text.
Also, I’m not sure if it’s in the spirit of the play that we are to feel sorry for Todd and company, but rather, to be amused by their nastiness, where instead, the innocent young couple should get out sympathies.
The flashbacks in the stage play are much the way they appear in the film. Burton and his screenwriter cut a fair bit of dialogue expanding upon Sweeney’s single-minded quest for revenge, but I personally don’t believe it would have added anything to the film. The only characters I think were marginalized in the film where Anthony and Johanna, specifically how they don’t even have a scene together until the end of the movie ’cause “Ah, Miss” and “Kiss Me” were cut.
I loved the film – every second. And I can’t see how expanding the pre-prison sequence would have improved the film. The journey from obsessed Barker to murderous Todd is the story’s most interesting part.
I agree, but the impact of that journey was lost to me. I’m not sure if seeing more of his life before would have helped convey it better or not, but I still think Burton fumbled the real dramatic potential.
A flawed masterpiece if there ever was one. I know that I am in the minority here, so I’ll keep my trap shut. Still, I wonder what this film would have been like with say Julie Taymor or even Terry Gilliam at the helm?
I know that I am in the minority here, so I’ll keep my trap shut.
Nah. You should speak out when you want to. We’re all friends here. We can take it.
Monsterhead Wrote:
> A flawed masterpiece if there ever was one. I
> know that I am in the minority here, so I’ll keep
> my trap shut. Still, I wonder what this film
> would have been like with say Julie Taymor or even
> Terry Gilliam at the helm?Taymor? Everyone would be walking around with gigantic papier mache heads?
I’m referring to some of smaller, subtle moments that I think are incapable for the director to handle…
…Specifically, I refer to the flashback sequence of Todd’s life before returning to London. That entire montage was slapdash…
It’s hard for Burton to keep things subtle during a sequence where characters are singing. What was Burton to do? — Have Elfman write a longer song? Cut it entirely?
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