Learn to Leave the Past Alone
MOVIE REVIEW
Dark Shadows (2012)
Peter Mountain/Warner Brothers Pictures
One might imagine that a partnership between Tim Burton and vampires would yield compelling results. Mr. Burton’s appeal derives from his distinct imagination and the way he combines dark themes and youthful exuberance into genre movies. Films such as “Alice in Wonderland,” “Big Fish” and “Ed Wood,” illustrate Mr. Burton’s signature brand of aestheticism and complexity. Good or bad, few would describe Mr. Burton as conventional. But his newest film, “Dark Shadows,” never establishes any sort of originality. Flat characters, predictable plotting and boring action sequences make Mr. Burton’s latest an ordinary waste of two hours.