Bloodthirsty bastard

Story of a misanthropist. It could have been a better movie, but... It could be a shakespeare's tragedy - How a man was eaten by his own weakness and evil. It could be a greek tragedy - Man can never win the Fate, especially when the Fate is full of absurdity. Or...., don't be so serious, let's take a light-hearted approach. It could be a cult movie for the bloodthirsty bastards - Throat-slitting, lengthy blood-pouring, with the help of mince pie and corpse hill, what a perfect scene for any lovers of Vienna Actionist, Meat Joy and Blood Pleasure. Or..., don't be so arty. Maybe it's just a tribute to the B-movie, remember how we love pulp fiction! No no no, Sweeney Todd is none of the above. I'm reluntant to criticise this film, given that I'm so fond of Mr Depp, but somehow I do feel that there's something missing. I don't love the person Sweeney Todd, worse still, I don't hate him. I just have no feeling. There is no emphathy, no association. I blame it on the script (or the lyrics) that it didn't quite manage to establish the mentality of this man. Burton was used to be an expert to portray those lovely monster, be it sulky, melancholic, transvestite, hyperactive or simply, freakish. This time everything was a bit "surface". Joyless and humourless (except those bit about something like "i leave you to the mercy of your children" that's very Burton). I also blame it on the lack of chemistry between Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Their voices seem to have much more chemical reaction in Corpse Bride but in sweeney todd ... double negatives make a positive? two freakish persons may mean the loss of magic. And hey, why "Borat" just so quick to be killed? OK, i don't intend to make a series of complaint, especially to the work of my favourite people. At least i would say I appreciate the attempt of Burton, to make a gloomy "musicals" film about a serial killer and, I really love those gloomy Dickensian London scene. Fleet Street, I used to get my academic textbooks there, so bright so normal, it's hard to imagine its dark and mouldy past, err what? That city "is a hole in the world like a great black pit/ and it's filled with people who are filled with shit/ And the vermin of the world inhabit it"??? (I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap)


Razor-mirror, cracked mirror and "a pond of dirty water" mirror, that's too cliche to symbolise a mad man's vision (yeah I like to complain, cos I'm mad too)