Sweeney Todd review

Off the bat I want to iterate my disdain for musicals as films. The reason musicals are powerful are the live performances they have and the songs sung right in front of you. When you can do as many takes as you want and dub over any mediocrity in tone I believe that the film is just a joke at that point. Never mind the fact that almost every musicals looks exactly like the theater version just on screen instead. I'm explaining this to make it clear how rare it is for me to really love a musical, as I did Sweeney Todd.
Sweeney Todd is about a barber who loses his entire family and loses his mind in the process. He returns 15 years later to get revenge and opens another barber shop. However, in this barber shop Sweeney slits the throats of all his customers and then there meat is served in his partners meat pie shop below.
This film is bloody, so if you are squeamish, be warned. The blood does look theatrical instead of realistic so that may helps some. One of the best attributes of the film is that Tim Burton didn't create obvious sets for the film. The film is done as a normal film would be except that most of the dialogue is sung instead of spoken. Tim Burton's touch really adds to the film and the flair he provides makes the film better because of it. Johnny Depp was very good, but I don't know if I would say Oscar worthy, as I really don't believe singing is acting.
This film is one of the best of the year and I believe it is more likely to get nominated for the comedy/musical slot than Juno. If you can stand the blood, go see this film, it's a breath of fresh air this year and you won't see anything like it. (SCORE: 9.4)