Batman Returns as a drop off from Batman – the best superhero movie up until Spider-Man 2 – but it was certainly a good film and I’ve found most of Burton’s films quite good. The only real dud was Planet of the Apes (I haven’t seen Alice, though). Big Fish was especially impressive.
I do expect to get around to Edward Scissorhands, some day.
For the rest of his movies, I guess enjoyed The Planet of the Apes well enough for what it was, although I remember coming out of the theatre feeling a little let down. Needs another viewing, I think - I haven’t seen it since the day of its release.
I did not like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at all. I couldn’t really get past picturing Burton reading the text…
“Ah! Johnny will be perfect, with a little prosthetic make-up… no… screw the make-up, Ichabod is a heartthrob. Brilliant!”
…and it went downhill from there.
I did not mind his casting in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and had no problem with the direction they took the character in. I’m a huge Roald Dahl fan, and I thought that the adaptation did justice to the original.
I haven’t been able to get through Alice in Wonderland in its entirety, yet. I went into it with my mind as open as possible (knowing it doesn’t claim to be an adaptation,) but I had a real problem with the way the source material was treated, and found it too distracting to carry on. (Things like fragments of “Jabberwocky” being used as action dialog – out of order, and shouted. Blech.)
I suspect that there exists of perfect combination of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, lysergic acid diethylamide, and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine which might suppress the portion of my consciousness which raises this sort of objection like a guinea-pig at court, while amping up those bits that’d be content with lush visuals and High Weirdness - however as a new parent the chances of ever indulging in that sort of tinkering in order to watch a movie seem vanishingly remote, so I suppose I’ll just have to wait until I’m in the mood.
There was a lot that could’ve been done with the POTA re-imagining but the forces of money, executive meddling, and time (i.e., it had be completed before guaranteed-to-happen-but-averted-at-the-last-second writer and actor strikes shut down Hollywood) conspired against it. As for the final product, I found it rampagingly pedestrian.
I actually kind of liked Sleepy Hollow for what is was: a homage to Hammer horror films combined with a plot that can described as “X-Files: 1799”. In fact, I would’ve liked to have seen a series of sequels featuring Ichabod Crane investigating various mysterious and supernatural occurrences in early 19th century America.
Well, I didn’t think that comment would kill the thread but I guess it did.
I rather liked Sleepy Hollow, and Ed Wood has one of my all-time favourite lines:
Ed: [while debating replacing the deceased Bela Lugosi with the much taller Tom Mason] But can you sound like Bela?
Tom: I want to suck your blood. I want to suck your blood!
Bunny: Let’s hear you call Boris Karloff a cocksucker.
Ed Wood is one of my favorite films. I also loved Big Fish and Sleepy Hollow. I enjoyed Sweeney Todd as well.
POTA was dull and grim, though, and Mars Attacks looked like it was trying to be funny and clever but kept missing the mark.
I thought Alice… looked great but was never amusing, and I can barely remember what happened in it, how it ended, or who was involved.