***I don’t get all the hate*** On coastal Maine, a Vampire named Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) is released in 1972 after almost 200 years in captivity and reacquaints himself with his family’s chateau & the nearby fishing village. Michelle Pfeiffer plays the Collins matriarch, Helena Bonham Carter the in-house shrink, Eva Green a conniving witch, Bella Heathcote the reincarnation of Barnabas’ long-lost love and Chloë Grace Moretz a 15 year-old punk. Directed by Tim Burton, “Dark Shadows” (2012) isn’t far removed in tone from his “Sleepy Hollow” (1999), which also featured Depp as the protagonist, although I suppose “Shadows” throws in a little more humor. I’ve never seen the TV soap opera Dark Shadows or the subsequent two movies, so I can’t compare this movie to them. All I know is that I liked this rendition quite a bit, just as I liked the inexplicably reviled “The Lone Ranger” (2013). The October/November ambiance (i.e. Halloween-season) is to die for and Depp as Barnabas Collins maintains your interest throughout. He’s obviously a fish-out-of-water in 1972, but acclimates pretty quickly. Eva Green is perfect as the ee-vil witch and Carter is enjoyable as usual. I don’t get the hubbub over Moretz, but she’s a’right (and holds a surprise for the last act). Alice Cooper is featured in a glorified cameo. I should add that the opening credits sequence with “Nights in White Satin” is cinema at its finest. The movie runs 1 hour, 53 minutes and was shot in England (Devon, Buckinghamshire, Kent, Cornwall & Farnham) and Scotland (Mull, Argyll and Bute) with exteriors of the chateau shot at Trafalgar Castle School, Whitby, Ontario, Canada. GRADE: B

I'm sorry but I am incapable of buying 50-year-old Johnny Depp as the immortal, youthful, irresistible heir to his father's New World empire. Maybe in a better movie, I would have been too distracted to be bothered by it, but this is Tim Burton's 2012 reboot of _Dark Shadows_, so that was not the case. _Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product._

Really good watch, would watch again, and can recommend. Don't get me wrong, this is probably a stranger than good watch, but from concept to story to characters, it has a lot of good to it. Some of the choices are a bit odd, but they do create their own problem-solution story arcs that make it feel like this was a comic book that was consolidated into a movie. While Depp's typical weirdness is abundant, each character has their own weirdness about them, and the otherworldly atmosphere of the movie is what makes it. Eva Green does steals the show whenever she makes an appearance, and her character is a force of power, and it shows. There is something very intriguing about immortal characters locked in battle, and that's what really draws me back to this movie.