Tim Burton
Sweeney Todd

After truly original and beautiful films like "Nightmare," "Ed Wood," and "Mars Attacks," Tim Burton's ratings dropped because people didn't go to see them. Perhaps too strange for the "normal" audience. Taking risks does not pay off. So, to avoid ending up at the unemployment office, Tim thinks about the strengths of his successes, the audience that loved them, and plays it safe: from "Sleepy Hollow" (except for "Planet of the Apes," which I didn't even want to see) everything became even too "Burtonian."

I have the impression that his style has reached such an awareness that it has become artificial and sterile compared to his early works. They are still nice films, mind you, but they no longer have the raison d'être they had before, they are no longer as true and touching as before. In short, if in his early works, there was a balance between form and substance, from "Sleepy Hollow" onward, it seems to me that the scales tip more towards the former.

"Sweeney Todd" is no exception. There is Tim Burton to the nth degree, even from a kilometer away you can tell the film is his. And then? Nothing. In fact, I would dare say, gratuitous violence. Sterile. Made for kids who have understood nothing about Burton's cinema but who have striped socks and a Jack Skellington backpack. They will love it; it's made just for them.

A matter of marketing, I suppose.