Never Forget. Never Forgive.Maybe I expected too much from this movie. (Anyway, it's the Johnny Depp and Tim Burton thing.) The storyline is extremely simple--revenge. Benjamin Barker(a.k.a Sweeney Todd) returns to London to find his wife dead and his daughter in the hands of the evil Judge Turpin. He opens a barber shop in the place he originally lives in before jail and cuts the victims' throat and ends their lives. Simple enough. It's not what I expect.
Except form the storyline, everything is just fine. It's like a musical rather than a movie. ( I do appreciate Depp's voice.) Several songs in the movie are from the Broadway musical itself like this one:
Alright! You, sir?/How about a shave?/Come and visit/Your good friend
Sweeney!/You sir! Too, sir/Welcome to the grave./I will have vengenance./I will
have salvation... /Who, sir? You sir!/No one's in the chair come on, come
on/Sweeney's waiting/I want you bleeders./ You sir? Anybody?/Gentlemen, now
don't be shy/Not one man/No, nor ten men/Nor a hundred can assuage me.
It makes me want to buy the soundtrack. I love the cinematography most, especially the contrast between the life of the foolish Mr. Barker and the evil Mr. T. Love the costumes as well. But all these can't cover up the emptiness of the story.
It is rated III in HK for the graphic bloody violence; somehow, I found it not that bloody (when you compare it with Battle Royale). But the scene when Mr. T kills Judge Turpin did shocked me.
(A side note: The beggar in the movie (Laura Michelle Kelly) acts as Galadriel in the Lord Of The Rings play in London.)
