There have been a lot of versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol over the years including everyone from Bill Murray, Patrick Stewart, George C. Scott, Alastair Sim, Disney characters and the Muppets. You can add Johnny Depp’s name to that notable list after Ebenezer debuted this weekend.

You know the story. Ebenezer Scrooge is a lonely, cold-hearted, and greedy businessman in the Victorian-age London who hates Christmas. Three ghosts visit him to attempt to redeem him before he had to go through his afterlife carrying a dreadful chain, like his former partner Jacob Marley.

Jacob Marley is played in this version by Ian McKellen and we do not get enough of Magneto. Of course, Marley is used as he is in all versions of the story, as our introduction to the ghosts coming to haunt Scrooge.

Johnny Depp is excellent as Ebenezer Scrooge. He does an excellent job giving us the miser and portraying the rotten man. Johnny Depp has been missing from the big screen for awhile now, thanks to his own life drama, but it was great to see him back and embracing this iconic character so well.

The biggest criticism I have seen about this movie is the question of whether or not we needed another version of A Christmas Carol, and, if so, what exactly does this movie bring new to the story. I can say that there is not anything really new about the way the story is presented to the audience and could be considered unnecessary. However, even without anything new to say, Ebenezer was an enjoyable movie and I was connected to Scrooge and his tail.

In fact, the movie did make some changes to the characters of the charity collectors that we see in the beginning of the story, and these changes did not work for me. I am not sure that this little addition made the story any more interesting and, to be honest, I would have rather had it removed from the film. There were a few other adjustments the film made in the future section that I did not like as much, but it did not pull me out of the movie.

Ebenezer was extremely dark and had several horror elements to it, more than most versions of A Christmas Carol would have. The character designs were really good, especially the Ghost of Christmas Present (played by Tramell Tillman). The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come continues to be one of the scariest ghosts you will ever see.

I did not realize that Ron Weasley himself, Rupert Grint, was playing Bob Cratchit until the final scenes of the movie. I was very impressed with his take on Bob Cratchit.

If you are looking for something all new or different, this is not your film. If you are out to get Johnny Depp after his controversies, there is not much I can say about it. Haters will hate. I found this movie to be very entertaining and I enjoyed the more horror take on the Scrooge story. It may be somewhat too long, but I did not feel that. Overall, I think this is a worthy addition to the classic movies of A Christmas Carol.

3.5 stars