Tim Burton: Hack or Auteur?
People often are under the delusion that Tim Burton is a brilliant autuer, who's film are profound pieces of art, when in actuality they are mediocre attempts at trying to make a statement about how wonderful it is to be different. Tim Burton pisses me off! I can't stand how he promotes himself as being a misunderstood artist, when clearly he revels in trying to make yet another studio picture that will make lots of money. If he would directly say that his interest in film making is monetary, maybe I could respect him. But he constantly talks about how his films are personal expressions of his tormented soul. Shut up Burton, you love money which is why you made Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a sure fire hit.
People often talk about how great Tim Burton's visual style is; Tim Burton has no visual style, he blatantly rips off of old German expressionistic and Universal Monster films. In Sleepy Hollow, the windmill scene is a virtual rehash of windmill scene in the far far far superior Frankenstein. Watch any Universal Monter movie and you will see that Tim Burton has generously borrowed his visual look from practically every one of these films. What's amazing is how these film are so consistently stylistic, yet they were made by a different set of directors, writers, cinematographers, etc. Thus shutting up the notion that you need a top flight director to make a visually superior film. The auteur theory has always been a load of nonsense, mainly because it assumes if a director makes five or six good films, then ALL his films must be good, or at least worth looking at. This applies to Tim Burton, he's made a few decent films, yet many people think because he's made a few entertaining films (never any masterpieces) that all his films must be good. Therefore, Burton fans tend to make his films out to be a lot better than they actually are.
Almost every one I know regards the 1989 version of Batman as being the DEFINITIVE Batman, when in actuality it is the definitive Joker film; Batman is given nothing to do but whisper softly and say stupid one liners like, "Alfred, let's go shopping." There's no attempt to examine the character or make him remotely interesting, except in a half assed flashback that shows the Joker aka Jack Napier gunning down his parents. The scene doesn't reveal too much about Bruce Wayne/Batman, it mainly shows his motivation for wanting to stop the Joker. If Jack Nicholson was not the STAR of the Tim Burton's Batman, there's no way people would hold it up on such a high pedestal. It's by no means a bad movie, but its far from being one of the best superhero films of all time. I think the latest cycle of superhero films (with the exception of Fantastic Four and the dreadful Daredevil) have put Tim Burton's Batman to shame. I could just see Tim Burton on the set of the film, giving Jack Nicholson directorial advice, "Your motivation is that you are a misunderstood artist, just like me. I'm so misunderstood, I was an outsider, therefore I'm filled with so much angst."
Does that mean I think all of Tim Burton's films are bad? No, just his direction. Generally, Tim Burton's film are saved by the strength of its casts, or the conviction of the ideas; Pee-Wee's Big Adventure; Beetle Juice, Edward Scissorhands, and Ed Wood (I admit that unlike a lot of my peers, I did like Big Fish) are among Burton's best works, mainly because the casting was perfect and the writing was top notch. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is not so much a movie, but a string of clever ideas strung together. However, his other films including the over-rated Batman films suffer from poor writing, bad casting (Michael Keaton WAS not and IS not a good Batman), and are often self congragulatory in their darkness. Many of his visuals (like the overlong chase sequence in Sleepy Hollow) call attention to themselves and have a tendency to take away from the story rather than help it move along. Any one ever trying listening to Tim Burton commentary, all he ever talks about is how much he loves a certain shot, while laughing at what is happening on screen. "I love this shot, it's misunderstood like me. Oh look, Johnny Depp fell on his ass. Ha Ha!"
I would like to see Tim Burton do a film that isn't filled with lame homages, dumb one liners, pale people dressed in black, and that doesn't have a lead character who is misunderstood. Of course, many of his fans would say, "But that's taking away from his style. He makes a certain kind of film and he's good at what he does." The problem with that is you are unable to tell just how good of a director he truly is, because he makes the same type of film every year. It's like the author of a book writing the same novel every year with slight variations and getting rave notices for not writing something that is remotely different. He relies on the same trickery to tell a story, but never attempts to find a different way to tell a story. Just imagine if Tim Burton made a film about George Washington, it probably would be all dark, gothic, and have Johnny Depp as Washington.
The only good thing I can say about Tim Burton is that he is not Kevin Smith. At least, he is a visual artist, where as Kevin Smith's idea of cinema is people standing in front of brick walls, having long winded conversations that don't go any where.