So the girl and I went out to see Batman today, although I will admit it was more because Land of the Dead isn't showing in town yet.
I'd heard good things and was really interested in checking it out, and I thought it was fantastic. Better than Spiderman... maybe not quite as awesome as Spiderman 2... but still pretty freaking fantastic.
It's probably even better than the Burton/Keaton one.
My few complaints were that the sound was a little too overstated with not enough subtlety (they really liked things LOUD so that they would go BANG a lot), the editing in the fight scenes was a little weak (I like when you can actually follow the flow and "narrative" of a fight - not just see a flurry of seemingly unrelated moves until one guy is left standing), and the one scene in which he was interrogating the corrupt cop came off like he was doing his best pro wrestler impersonation.
SWEAR TO ME!!!!
Um, right.
The casting was largely sublime (and managed to prove that even an already really good movie somehow manages to get even better just by virtue of Gary Oldman showing up). Even Rutger Hauer (and how many people think "Rutger Hauer" and "great movie" in the same week? What's he been in that's been worthwhile since Blade Runner? Hell, I didn't even like Blade Runner all that much.) turned in an excellent performance. And Morgan Freeman? That's like the "with release" on the "full body massage" that was this film's casting.
The only thing that kept me from having a total stargasm was Katie Holmes. Don't get me wrong - I've worn out as many pause buttons during "The Gift" as the next guy... but she came off as too young for the role, doesn't have that certain ethereal quality that managed to make Kristen Dunst look like both the girl next door and the most beautiful thing in the world at the same time in Spiderman... and who can take her seriously since she joined the Junior Scientologists of America and started bopping Tom "There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance" Cruise? She was capable but miscast in a film that otherwise brought Gotham City to life in a way I wouldn't have thought possible.
Oh, so the fabric is totally flexible until you run a current through it? Sounds convincing to me! And that first batsignal? Well played, El Director. Well played.
The weather here is gorgeous but too humid, and we drove out to the lake in search of awesome milkshakes but were turned away by lack of parking. Dumbass tourist sections with their dumbass tourists. Starbucks proved a respectable second choice for frosty goodness, and we drank out on the girl's balcony while she showed off a new haircut that seriously had to chop about a foot of silky locks away. I swear to god, they always have long hair when I START dating them. I'm pretty sure if I date a girl long enough she's gonna wind up looking like Ripley in Alien 3.
Evidently, you earn like a bajillion boyfriend points if you agree to just cruise the mall and wait around when the girl wants to get a spontaneous haircut.
So it goes.
In other news, I'm taking World of Warcraft - which , to be clear, is an online videogame that isn't real and doesn't affect my life in the slightest - entirely too seriously. I need to get outside more.
I need to buy a bike and enjoy the summer while it's here. That's sort of a latent theme with my life lately.
Now, I'm going to turn the computer off, tidy up my place a bit and throw in some laundry, and then grab a book. Maybe I'll sing to myself.
I'd heard good things and was really interested in checking it out, and I thought it was fantastic. Better than Spiderman... maybe not quite as awesome as Spiderman 2... but still pretty freaking fantastic.
It's probably even better than the Burton/Keaton one.
My few complaints were that the sound was a little too overstated with not enough subtlety (they really liked things LOUD so that they would go BANG a lot), the editing in the fight scenes was a little weak (I like when you can actually follow the flow and "narrative" of a fight - not just see a flurry of seemingly unrelated moves until one guy is left standing), and the one scene in which he was interrogating the corrupt cop came off like he was doing his best pro wrestler impersonation.
SWEAR TO ME!!!!
Um, right.
The casting was largely sublime (and managed to prove that even an already really good movie somehow manages to get even better just by virtue of Gary Oldman showing up). Even Rutger Hauer (and how many people think "Rutger Hauer" and "great movie" in the same week? What's he been in that's been worthwhile since Blade Runner? Hell, I didn't even like Blade Runner all that much.) turned in an excellent performance. And Morgan Freeman? That's like the "with release" on the "full body massage" that was this film's casting.
The only thing that kept me from having a total stargasm was Katie Holmes. Don't get me wrong - I've worn out as many pause buttons during "The Gift" as the next guy... but she came off as too young for the role, doesn't have that certain ethereal quality that managed to make Kristen Dunst look like both the girl next door and the most beautiful thing in the world at the same time in Spiderman... and who can take her seriously since she joined the Junior Scientologists of America and started bopping Tom "There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance" Cruise? She was capable but miscast in a film that otherwise brought Gotham City to life in a way I wouldn't have thought possible.
Oh, so the fabric is totally flexible until you run a current through it? Sounds convincing to me! And that first batsignal? Well played, El Director. Well played.
The weather here is gorgeous but too humid, and we drove out to the lake in search of awesome milkshakes but were turned away by lack of parking. Dumbass tourist sections with their dumbass tourists. Starbucks proved a respectable second choice for frosty goodness, and we drank out on the girl's balcony while she showed off a new haircut that seriously had to chop about a foot of silky locks away. I swear to god, they always have long hair when I START dating them. I'm pretty sure if I date a girl long enough she's gonna wind up looking like Ripley in Alien 3.
Evidently, you earn like a bajillion boyfriend points if you agree to just cruise the mall and wait around when the girl wants to get a spontaneous haircut.
So it goes.
In other news, I'm taking World of Warcraft - which , to be clear, is an online videogame that isn't real and doesn't affect my life in the slightest - entirely too seriously. I need to get outside more.
I need to buy a bike and enjoy the summer while it's here. That's sort of a latent theme with my life lately.
Now, I'm going to turn the computer off, tidy up my place a bit and throw in some laundry, and then grab a book. Maybe I'll sing to myself.
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
-I'm totally with you on the fight scenes, they gave me a fucking headache.
-I've said it before and I'll say it again, why was Alfred a better critical thinker then "The World's Greatest Detective"? Batman has always been more than gadgets and intimidation. His mind has always been his best weapon (for that matter, so has Ra's Al Goul's). So why was he a thug with a couple of neat theater tricks, prototype gadgets and martial arts? Where was his brain?
-The pacing was awkward. The first half hour was nothing but jarring flashbacks. I followed them and understood the narrative, it just got annoying to constantly have to jump back and forth between the past and the present.
-The Batmobile sequence. Let me get this straight, he goes through years of intensive training to learn the art of invisibility...just so he can run a souped up hummer thorugh anything in his way? If that's the case, why bother being invisible at all? You're driving a fucking M1A1 Abrams through a crouded city! Is The Wayne Foundation going to pay for all the damage that car did? The reason the "Bat-Tank" worked in Dark Knight Returns is because he wasn't trying to be subtle, or stealthy. He was making a stand and a statement. That car was meant to put the fear of god into the street gangs. This one was meant to give us the obligatory car chase while convincing fanboys that Miller's ideas were being used. I'm sorry, it's true.
- I'm fully convinced that David Goyer is a hack writer. The only thing that saved the first 2 Blade movies was the acting and directing. This script was a bunch of one-liners and plot devices. If you're going to crib from the best (Miller) then do it all the way, don't do this half-assed shit and add some of your shlock into the mix too
-Gordon driving the Batmobile
-Let me make sure I'm following this, the train had the device on it that would cover Gotham in fear toxin if it got to the Wayne Foundation building. So they destroy the train...by crashing it into the Wayne Foundation building
Definately an entartaining flick, but it's not even my favorite comic book movie of the year so far. Hell it's not even my second. Those go to Sin City and Constantine respectively.
[Edited on Jun 27, 2005 12:27PM]
Actually, if that single does it for you, so would their first album--take a listen to "Broken Bricks", "The Astro", and "Jimmy The Exploder" and tell me you're not in love.