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Think I'm joking? I am. But I wouldn't bet against it. The choices Tim Burton has made this past decade have made one thing very clear. He has no intention of challenging himself creatively ever again. Every movie directed by Tim Burton will have the same actors – the aforementioned twosome, the same look - some call it gothic, I call it black twisty things and big hair (have you noticed that everyone in Tim Burton movies has Tim Burton hair?), and the same sound – has Danny Elfman written any new music in the last 20 years? - as every other Tim Burton movie ever made.

Look, I'm all for auteurs in movie making. I find great pleasure in the recognizing a particular filmmaker's style. I'm always excited to see the world through the warped lens of the Cohen brothers, or have a story told to me in the quietly deliberate tone of a Clint Eastwood film. And I can hardly contain myself waiting to see what horrifying gauntlet the female lead of the latest Lars Von Trier film is going to be put through. These filmmakers have a distinguishable style and approach. But that doesn't mean that every film is made in the same way. The ideas a director brings to a project should depend on the needs of the story and out of that combination of director and script, a specific look and tone is created and developed to suit the film. But with Burton, the look and tone of the film is never determined by the story. Because every one of his movies all look freaking the same! It's like he has only one idea and keeps selling that one idea over and over. There's a name for that, and it's not a style, it's brand. And in today's movie going climate, the Tim Burton brand is a popular one.

Look, if he can get away with selling the same movie to audiences over and over, more power to him. But to me it's completely uninteresting. Commercial films aren't high art, but it still takes an artist to make them and Burton is no doubt an extremely talented one. Notice I've only been bitching about the films he made in the last ten years. His earlier films like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands are triumphs in which the bizarre subject matter and Burton's trademark vision are a perfect marriage. But it seems that once that vision was translated into financial success in Batman, for which Burton was a natural choice - a dark character all dressed in black that hangs out in shadows – a box began to form around what Burton was allowed to do and the commodity that was Burton's commercial viability somehow trapped him. Once his style was embraced by the greater public, in some circles fervently so – The Nightmare Before Christmas is to Hot Topic what Harry Potter is to Scholastic Publishing - boundaries were put in place that Burton was ultimately unable to step outside of.

So maybe it's not by choice. Maybe Tim Burton is dying to direct a romantic comedy starring Taylor Lautner and Miley Cryrus (now I'm picturing them with crazy Tim Burton hair) and no studios are willing to let him go there. But since several of his recent films have been wild box office success – due in no small part to the presence of Johnny Depp, perhaps not coincidentally another intriguing talent whose choices have been rather uninspiring since hitting it big – you'd think Burton would be able to take some more chances. And since he hasn't, I can only deduce that money, not art, is what Burton cares about these days. Maybe that isn't anything unusual in Hollywood. But it's sad that Tim Burton is now another case of someone who has the money to do anything and chooses to just make more money. In my eyes, the Tim Burton of today is no better than Michael Bay.

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