July so far has been pretty massive with movies that I care about, and it’s not quite over yet. Saw Hellboy 2 last week, just came back from Batman: the Dark Knight, and planning on seeing the new X-Files next week.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW:
Hellboy 2 was quirky and fun. I never saw the first one in theaters because I wasn’t sure I was going to like it or not. Having later rented it on DVD I was pleasantly surprised at just how good it was. So I go into Hellboy 2 just for pure entertainment value. The creatures in it are just amazing. Very much a throwback to Pan’s Labyrinth. Although I was constantly reminded of blood elves from WoW since the main villain is supposedly a pale-skinned elf of some sort. Anyways, if you’ve seen the first Hellboy, this pretty much picks up where the first one left off. Although you get the impression it could almost be an entirely new film and you wouldn’t have to have seen the first one to necessarily “get” this one. The story is laid out pretty nicely at the beginning of the film in rather unique animated style.
Two gripes though, David Hyde Pierce voiced Abe in the first film and fit the part perfectly. For whatever reason (what the hell is David Hyde Pierce doing these days anyway?) there was someone else doing Abe’s voice for this film. It was immediately obvious and rather irritating; I tried to ignore it. Second gripe, fairly early in they set Hellboy up for a 3rd possible film with Liz becoming pregnant. Why the hell does Liz have to get pregnant? Nothing against sex or having kids, but traditionally superhero or comic book-based films just don’t work when you bring in parenting with the main hero. It’s more of a distraction from the fact that I’m supposed to be watching a film about superheroes doing something awesome, not changing diapers. Looking at the last Superman flick, it immediately became retarded when his kid demonstrated he had super powers and suddenly I felt like I was watching the wrong movie. Hellboy 3 jumping the shark? As always though, I’ll reserve judgment if and when….
As for Batman: The Dark Knight, I will say nothing more than HOLY AMAZING DEPTHS OF PURE CRIME DRAMA AWESOMENESS, Batman! Go see this film, it’s better than Batman Begins and Batman Begins is undoubtedly superior to its predecessors of the 90s. Christopher Nolan should just stop right now because I can’t see him topping this. Heath Ledger’s Joker will go down in history as one of my all-time favorite Batman movie villains.
Waiting for DVD releases of everything can be quite annoying when there’s so many movies I want to watch right now But since buying one DVD cost less than 2 theater tickets and I get a better experience at home, I refuse to pay more for less a few months earlier. Biggest loss is not being able to discuss the movies with everybody else :(
I saw Hellboy 2 at the insistence of my dad, who to my knowledge has not seen the first Hellboy (nor have I). I have to agree with Jim on all points. Good entertainment, with plenty of cheese and enough explosions to keep my brain dead. If there was any kind of story, it was a bit disjointed, but what the heck. Monsters got squished between huge metal spike rollers and stuff. Good times.
Two hours earlier, we’d also gone and seen Wall-E for a double-ticket afternoon. Now there is a film worth raving about. Pixar has done it again; as usual, with endearing characters, a unique story and drop-dead gorgeous visuals. They managed to pull off a film that is fun for kids like me, yet also entertaining and even wake-up-and-start-thinking enough for adults, also like me. My favorite part by far, however, are all the easter eggs they managed to squeeze into the thing. There are multiple direct digs at our country’s current president ([spoiler]“Stay the course!”[/spoiler]), and also a couple of things for Apple fans in particular to pick up on ([spoiler]Wall-E’s startup chime sounds familiar[/spoiler]). Also, the end credits are pretty cute.
If I had to recommend one of the two films above, go see Wall-E in theaters.
I saw Batman, I thought it was alright.
Maybe I’m crazy but the first Batman Returns I was bored stiff and found myself very uninterested in the making of Batman. Dark Knight is much improved but sorta drags itself on. [spoiler] The Two face turning was a little wonky blaming the commissioner for the cops who turned out assist to the Joker in the kidnapping of the girl, and. Going to abduct the Comissioner’s family was a little flimsy as was the commissioner’s false death. I found it strange they had to pin the murders of the Two-Face on Batman, rather than on the Joker’s gang or some other plausible reason. Another problem that had me curious is who the hell built the super computer for Bruce Wayne in the bottom of Wayne enterprises? There’d millions put into research and man hours to build such a device, yet he had it. Previously the bat gadgets had be all future solider tech developed under the government’s black budget or at least very classified so it was just adapted tech. They made a special point to that this device was far too powerful for one person to have hence it was certainly out of the scope of anything at Wayne enterprises and their fat Republican warmonger money. I won’t go into the logical problems of using cellphones as sonar as you have to suspend disbelief but I found myself wondering too much how he developed such a device? Also, there were a few suspended beliefs I thought were corny, namely the batbike that appeared out of no-where that had me yelling, “OH WHAT THE HELL!?” at the screen. Not one person could explain what Batman was doing with the turrets in the lab out of 15 people then even my brother and his friends who saw it pre-release on IMAX in LA. They reconstructed the bullet to get the finger print but there was no clear reason why shooting 50 caliber turrets would replicate the results of a 9 mm pistol to establish fragment patterns. Lastly, Christen Baile makes for a very lackluster Batman, speaking in an extremely forced voice that just annoyed me. As Bruce he’s fine, as Batman he’s cheesy, which really seemed out of place when paired with the ragged Joker.[/spoiler] I didn’t hate the movie, but I just had a parts that pulled me out of the movie leaving me too much time to deconstruct something that wasn’t meant to be. I’d give it a B and not enough Joker. I think its asking too much to compare this as a crime drama on the level of Goodfellas or Gone Baby Gone as some overzealous horny-over-the-deceased-Ledger critics said, but worth watching none the less.
And like Ross:
Wall-E is the movie to see this summer. Pretty much Pixar did its usual. I don’t know why I doubted Wall-E ever. Honestly, they might as well just give Pixar the Best Animated in advance these days as they can do absolutely nothing wrong. I’d say it should be up for best picture. Its strangely minimalistic, almost a little too sparse, but communicating at the same time the emptiness of Wall-E’s world. And in a twist, the movie is a romantic comedy carrying a very straightforward and beautiful critique of humanity. I may have enjoyed Rataouille more for sheer entertainment but the multi-tiered structure of Wall-E is much more tantalizing, gloomy and hopeful.
Also Ironman was the most fun movie I’ve seen in ages. The action wasn’t all that inspired but Robert Downey Jr proved himself as the most unlikely awesome character. I went into the movie wanting to dislike it and couldn’t help but like the self obsessed Tony Starks. Also notable, it contained one of the best subtle homages I’ve ever heard. At one point they’re playing Ghostface of Wu-Tang. Ghostface like most rappers has a secondary rap name, and adopted the monkier “Tony Starks”. So they managed to work in Ghostface on the soundtrack, which was completely awesome as he’s obsessed with the comic, even naming his debut Album “Ironman”. They really should have given him a full cameo as he’s the only way a large portion of people even know Ironman. Ah well.
Well, I had carefully written up a few points regarding Greg’s gripes about Batman, but then my laptop decided it was just going to shut itself off without warning. It’s done this unexpected shutdown a few times even though the battery isn’t close to empty. I never get the low battery warning either. Tried resetting the SMC so hopefully it won’t happen again. Anyways, I’ll have to reply back again a little later.
I had that start to happen to me Jim and it just started getting worse - nothing helped. I got Apple to replace my battery for free since I’d only had it for 1 year and 2 months and had 51 charge cycles on it.
It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t complain but I’m a 100% serious when I say I was bored in Batman Begins, but I’m a notable comic book and JRPG/turned based RPG hater so I’d take anything I say with a grain of salt. I also profess Sim Ant as the best game ever made. I really don’t know if arguing with me is worth your time, but I’m all ears for the questions I had, namely the test sequence.
Best movie I’ve seen in a long long time. Just saw it for a second time tonight.
I had only one gripe about the movie itself, and one gripe about Bale as Batman (not as Bruce, hes great as Bruce)
Gripe about the movie: [spoiler] I just couldn’t care about Rachel Dawes. Probably stems from wanting her to die as played by Katie Holmes. And now as played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, I just couldnt care when she finally died. [/spoiler]
Gripe about Bale: Ok, I understand the need for him to sound different as Batman than as Bruce Wayne. Don’t want people thinking, “Hey, that Batman sounds amazingly like that Bruce Wayne guy…”. But quite often, it sounds like hes talking with a stuffed up nose, or like the cowl fits like a scuba mask. It kinda bugs me.
Favorite scene of movie: [spoiler] A tie: the scene when Joker is talking to the fake batman guy on tape sent to the news. When he goes all superpsychotic evil and yells “LOOK AT ME.” Chills man, chills. Also, the whole interrogation scene and the following scene in the interrogation room, pure awesome. [/spoiler]
[spoiler] My favorite scenes were the truck flipping over in dead silence. That whole process of getting it to flip over reminded me of Episode 5 too when the T-47s used tow cables to take down the AT-STs. My next favorite scene was when the Joker escaped from jail and there was no music and he was leaning out the window. Brilliant way to effect emotional response. [/spoiler]
[spoiler] My favorite scenes were the truck flipping over in dead silence. That whole process of getting it to flip over reminded me of Episode 5 too when the T-47s used tow cables to take down the AT-STs. My next favorite scene was when the Joker escaped from jail and there was no music and he was leaning out the window. Brilliant way to effect emotional response. [/spoiler]
Completely agreed. Though, I’d have to say that my new favorite 20 seconds of cinema came the way of [spoiler]the Joker walking into the room of mobsters, saying something along the lines of “Let me show you a magic trick, I’ll make this pencil disappear.” while jamming said pencil into the table and systematically grabbing an approaching mobster’s head and slamming it onto the table… making the pencil disappear into the mobster’s eye socket.[/spoiler] Mother-fucking brilliant.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve ever heard such a reaction out of a movie theater crowd from a single scene. I instantaneously curled up into a fetal position in my chair while emitting a combination of painful empathetic groaning and uncontrollable laughter.
I was relatively underwhelmed by Batman. It was good, but hardly transcendent, and a lot of people are being extremely hyperbolic in their assessment of it. The plot was full of gaping holes and utterly nonsensical moments, the characters were all extremely one dimensional, and any emotional tension was typically undermined by the fact that half the cast was in Halloween costumes.
[spoiler]The part that bugged me the most was the Joker’s speech to Harvey Dent about chaos and plans. The joker was claiming that the very nature of a plan is to fall apart, and that it was a fool’s errand, yet the whole movie was his master plan unfolding. So what is it? Are plans for fools, or are they how things get done? This was a fundamental contradiction in an already shallow character.[/spoiler]
I was also unimpressed with Heath Ledger’s performance. Sure, he did “psychopath” ok, but that’s like playing a handicapped person. It’s so extreme that it becomes easy.
I agree that the audio and music were phenomenal. They really served to add to a lot of the tense moments. I really liked a lot of moments just before some action began in which there would be some long atonal cord, as well as the use of silence. There was some truly brilliant sound design.
I think the worst thing about the movie to me was the audience I saw it with. The theater was packed, and people were cheering, clapping, and laughing at inappropriate times. I think the best way to make a cool scene become dumb is to get 300 idiots pounding their hands together when some fictional guy projected on a screen does something “bad ass”.
I think the worst thing about the movie to me was the audience I saw it with. The theater was packed, and people were cheering, clapping, and laughing at inappropriate times. I think the best way to make a cool scene become dumb is to get 300 idiots pounding their hands together when some fictional guy projected on a screen does something “bad ass”.
Yeah, I hate people in audiences. Whether its talking through the movie, or checking their cellphones (or the time on their cell phones), lots of people piss me off. And who in the hell started the idea of clapping at the end of the show? Maybe (and this is a big maybe) applauding at a big premier in Hollywood, when theres a bigger chance that the director/some of the actors may be there watching too. But shit, applauding in any other theater? Fucking retarded.
That being said, I think I did find myself laughing quietly to myself at some ‘inappropriate’ moments (usually with the Joker).
Batman lends itself to the more whimsical and rambunctious movie experience, as the very premise is build around man who dress like a bat. Long as people are chattering through the movies and yelling, its part of the “opening night” package. There’s a level of assumed opening night crowd rowdiness.
However, I can 100% relate to annoying crowd factor, when I saw Wall-E, the movie was almost destroyed by a bunch of 30 somethings (not your usual suspects) laughing at inappropriate scenes.
“Wall-E stoically rolls through the lifeless dystopian pollution tarnish remnants of a human city”. I’m pretty sure the script didn’t read, (Laughter ensues) at that point, yet there was one jackass sitting almost directly in front of me who seemed to think anything Wall-E did was comedic gold. “Wall-E sees other non-functional Wall-E units” HA AH AHA AHA AHA. Had I seen batman, I’d loved to pencil-eye the motherfucker.
Worst part is when my friend and I complained after the movie about, “Guy who felt necessary to repeat all the quotes” and “Laughing Hysterically Man” another friend’s girlfriend decided to take it as a personal insult that I’d like something so trivial bother me. I learned two things that night, I won’t see another midnight showing of a pixar flick and wanna-be-hippie-girlfriends are easily offended by gestures of knifing, strangling and splinter-cell-neckbreaking the guy in front of you.
But since buying one DVD cost less than 2 theater tickets and I get a better experience at home, I refuse to pay more for less a few months earlier. Biggest loss is not being able to discuss the movies with everybody else :(
