Let's talk about Tim Burton's other recent work for a second. I think we can both agree that Dark Shadows is absolutely better than Alice; a film that I'd say has little redeeming value at all. Without discussing each film individually, I'd have to say that the only recent film I enjoyed by Tim Burton was Sweeney Todd (2007).
The visuals in Sweeney Todd are quite typical of Burton, but the film also has a decent script. I wouldn't say it's a perfect movie, but I certainly enjoyed it. However, it's still not on par with earlier Burton works, many of which I would consider to be masterpieces.
I think the problem with Tim Burton is that he works so hard to give his films a distinct visual style that other aspects of the film suffer. Having now just re-watched Frankenweenie, it's plain to see that it's a beautiful looking short film. However, the excellent direction and photography are backed up with a solid screenplay.
So, maybe a lot of Tim Burton films suffer due to the writing -- often he isn't even credited as a screenwriter on his projects. Still, if it is the case that he has little input on scripts, then why does every other aspect of the film seem to be meticulously crafted by him?
It's strange. Auteur Theory, as I understand it, means that the director has a level of control over every aspect of the filmmaking process. It seems like Tim Burton is screaming to be an auteur with his control over cast and visuals, but the scripts have too much variety to really give him a distinct voice.
Yes, they all deal with similar subject matter, but they don't all have the same tone or feel. The dialogue in each film, the story structure in each, feels too different from film-to-film to really give Burton a set definition.
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