How do we feel about Tim Burtons most recent output?
I think it looks ridiculously funny and I love having Michelle Pfeiffer (who so still got it) and Eva Green in it.
It's always more interesting to learn who will be in the next Burton movie apart from Depp and Bonham Carter
Can't wait.

I really want to like it. I'm not really won over by the trailer. I will definitely go and see it though, I love Burton.

I can't make my mind up about it, some of the jokes fall really flat in the trailer imo, but the potential for it to be half decent is definitely there.

I've been a fan of "Dark Shadows" since it was an afternoon soap in the early 70s, back when I was a babe and I'm willing to give it a chance.

Burton and Depp are getting tiring for me.


I'm pretty passive about it.

Would have loved it if they had made it dark and mysterious instead of slapstick silly, think I'll pass.

The cast is amazing. That alone will make me see it.

Well you got your wish granted. Dark and mysterious is what the film is mostly.

Forget the trailer, the film is nothing like it. In fact I think it's the most misleading trailer I have ever seen.
The film is not a comedy and I don't mean it's a comedy which just isn't funny it's not intended to be a comedy at all.
It has a few gags in it (mainly the ones you see in the trailer and actually less cause the way it is edited is not always how it is in the film and scenes are less punchy or don't happen at all e.g. the scene where the disco ball drops) but only how most films have a few gags in it.
The film is all over the place but mainly it follows a dark and mysterious kind of narrative. When the film starts after the prologue which explains how Barnabas was coursed you see a girl travelling in a train through foggy mountain forest terrain, practising her introduction with different names (so you know she's up to something) with a face pale as a corpses and "nights in white satin" playing in the background you feel like your watching an old school horror flick.
This sort of narrative is always disrupted when suddenly there is a joke, an outburst of violence or some sexual event. All of which seems totally out of place cause you don't expect them.
Barnabas is not the family friendly vampire you see in the trailer, when he first awakes he kills a large group of construction workers by ripping them to pieces and he keeps killing throughout the film, preferably large groups of people at once. It's not that those scenes are particularly gory but they come somewhat shocking nonetheless.
Also the trailer makes it out it's all about Barnabas adjusting to the new century, it's not. That is a very small part of it for a few minutes. It's more about hugely dysfunctional people.
The twisted relationship between Barnabas and Angelique, the Collins family with their issues, Barnabas reborn first love Victoria and her tortured life as a medium etc...
None of those issues are touched on in depth though or are really resolved in the end but that makes them all the more unsettling because some of it is quite heavy stuff and you feel like it should be addressed more. Barnabas fits right in as a conundrum of a character who goes from nice guy, dickhead, sensual lover and brutal murderer in a heartbeat.
Eva Green and Michele Pfeiffer both look stunning and play great alpha females and its a shame they only have very few scenes together and even then it's mostly about Barnabas. It's a missed opportunity imo to not give them a proper cat fight.
Helena has only a side role but probably delivers one of the most disturbing scenes in the film. No-one explains doctor patient confidentiality like her.

It's been two days since I've seen it at the movies and I still have not made up my mind about it. I mean it was beautifully shot as you would expect it with a Burton film, the acting is good too and the soundtrack is great but it is such an odd output.
I can see why they made the trailer the way they did it cause it's probably easier to sell a comedy than what the film really is (whatever that is) but I also feel like it robbed me of the experience.
The fact you go and see it with completely wrong expectations sorta keeps you from appreciating the film for what is. I felt really confused and unsatisfied when I left the theatre but I don't know whether this was because the film was just different from what I expected or because it just wasn't good.

I had similar feelings Astron, in that I didn't know what to feel about it initially. Now, I've decided it was so disappointing.

As you point out, there are so many potentially interesting sub-plots that were almost set up then forgotten about, it was such a missed opportunity. Also, I hated the way Chloe's character was handled at the end. Without giving anything away, that was shoehorned in at the last minute, and just felt like an afterthought.

Depp, Burton, Bonham-Carter and Pfeiffer should have meant movie magic in my books, but it didn't live up to my expectations at all.