Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

After a second viewing, I have to stick with three stars. Sweeney Todd simply lacks heart and its witty ending doesn’t salvage it in this sense. The violence is cold and hateful, lacking Burton’s narrative poetics (like in Sleepy Hollow, for example). Todd’s decision to become a serial killer is unjustified and doesn’t make sense. And I don’t think that the singing Johnny Depp was a good choice for the title role. The other actors, however, were superbly cast and the set designs and music are great. (30/01/2008)

Cruel and sadistic, which is why it will appeal to the era of today. It's just that sometimes I don't fit into the era of today, so I guess that's why I wasn't as impressed with Sweeney as I thought I’d be. And I was looking forward to it so much. I was expecting something different, which is fine, my ideas are always "romantic". I guess what disappointed me the most was that the story was so readable, his actions so predictable. Such a pity. But even my favorite actors and their performances didn't can’t make me give more stars... Sometimes love is cruel, but why prove it with a razor and forget it? (22/03/2008)

So close to a fourth star. Unfortunately though, blood and human flesh is not my thing, so I just can't give it. It certainly has Burton's weirdness, spookiness, and strangeness. The musical aspect is more than excellent. Johnny gives an incredibly good performance, Helena Bonham Carter perhaps even better. But the second half was too much for me. (27/06/2011)

I think the result would have been just as impressive without the overly explicit violence (it doesn't sit well with Burton), but otherwise I'm satisfied. Burton rocks again, with lots of his typical cynicism (here bordering on the absurd) and his unmistakable visual style, things I never get tired of. And while the music is lacking any significant melodic motif to hum along to after the film, it was a fine listen. Just like Depp's singing, which proves that you don’t need to master the range of octaves and intonation flawlessly if you have the "gift to impress" and a pleasant colour of voice, and Johnny fulfils this without fail. But the star here is someone else, the wonderful Bonham-Carter, whose cynically pragmatic Mrs Lovett was delectable. (10/02/2008)

Burton's aesthetic of dark sets and faded camera filters got old a long time ago. The promise of live water in the form of musical numbers, however, only adds to the overall withering in the end. Burton is absolutely inept when it comes to the singing performances, lacking any choreography or at least a hint thereof, meaning that both Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter try very unsuccessfully, even though they are otherwise really excellent. For two hours I felt a kind of unspoken reverence for the original (even Burton's right-hand man Danny Elfman is nowhere to be found), but to be honest, even Kevin Smith did better in Jersey Girl. (18/02/2008)