In the end it was just Meags and me at the movie. My first movie in Madrid! At this movie theatre all the seats were assigned. I have to say that I might prefer assigned seating in the theatre, as it saves the hassle and anxiety of trying to find two good seats together. The seats were monstrous, plush red things...almost armchair-like. No stadium seating, just a slight slope, but luckily Spanish people are not very tall so they don't have to worry about each other's heads getting in the way.
I also noticed that the floors were not sticky and littered with popcorn and wrappers, despite the fact that there was only 15 minutes in between showings. Guess Spanish people are better behaved than my countrypeople in this respect.
And the movie itself? It was entertaining, but not the best musical I have seen. Is always a pleasure to watch Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, and the kid did a great job as well, but the music was overly dramatic and not particularly memorable.
Also am not sure that it wasn’t too gory. Yes, the blood looked fake, but why did we have to see throat after throat ripped open, shocked face after shocked face, body after body drop down the chute and fall to the basement floor head-first with a meaty thud? (Incidentally, I have heard a body drop head-first from a height, and it does not sound like that at all. It sounds more like a heavy cardboard box, perhaps filled with hardbacks, crashing to the asphalt and breaking apart.)
Was Burton trying to desensitize us to the violence of the act or to draw extra attention to the inhumanity of the barber? If for either of these motives, it failed in my opinion.
And I didn’t particularly need to see anyone burn to death either, their flesh and muscles melting off the still-screaming frame. I would've been fine with knowing that the person was pushed into the fire and hearing the screams, no visuals necessary.
Finally, the characters didn’t feel real to me. They were too simplistic, their motivations too one-dimensional. The feel of the movie in general was too costumey, too melodramatic, too cartoonish to strike any chords. It felt like the kind of serial-murder movie Disney would make if they made movies about serial murderers.
Girl,
ReplyDeleteDannon and I saw that movie in Mexico, and I totally agree with your thoughts. Gratuitous violence with no apparent redeeming value, retarded show tunes with no good rhymes, and the only characters with the voices to pull off the tunes were secondary and not oft seen. C'mon, Mr. Burton. Learn how to use a light touch more often.