July 16, 2008
3 hours of delicious film, and I savored every second of it. It felt like I didn’t pay enough for a ticket to something so enjoyable (oh and not to mention it was on the IMAX screens). It’s so much grittier and dark than the first of the series. Christopher Nolan tested the waters with Batman Begins to great success and it gave him the grounds to induce an even more malevolent tone in The Dark Knight.
It’s a very mature sequel, exploiting the ghastly society Gotham City had been left in where the last film tied off. I really appreciate how the characters feel real. They don’t need super powers or any supernatural influences to be engaging; it’s all to do with the strong contrast established in the battle of ideals. Structurally, it felt like the film ended 2/3 through when The Joker was caught for the first time. You get a delightful surprise with another hour of darkening twists, as the experience becomes increasingly bitter for the souls of Gotham City. It moved at a dynamic pace and the shorter time-line allowed for the time to expand into a length which felt like a documentation of a real time event.
Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker was outstanding. His portrayal of the character has got to be the most sick, twisted and humorous villain I’ve watched for a long time. I was instantly sold when The Joker performed the most horrendous and casual magic trick involving a disappearing pencil and the eye socket of a bouncer. Don’t want to give away too many of his hilarious and creepy antics, but watch out for his stint in a nurse costume with Two-Faced Harvey Denton. Of course, Christian Bale was amazing. So glad that they canned Katie Holmes for Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Explosions, sweet vehicles, punch ups and guns. It’s got all of that awesome Batman testosterone, as well as the complications of gang warfare and internal identity struggle. Easily in my list of favourite recent movies. I enjoyed it a lot, and I know I’ll have to catch it again in the cinemas! The wait was well worth it.
July 9, 2008
An interesting take on the superhero genre. I don’t know if I loved it (pssht- it was so lame), but it was a refreshing turn, seeing much less spectacular origins and establishment of the superhero archetype. Guess it was worth a look with
Will Smith as the lead.
Too bad the premise was weak. The pop culture references were sloppily thrown in to provide a link to the internet-aware generations. Expect repetitive lame phrases like “call me an asshole one more time”; because it’s in there for the whole movie. I really wish they didn’t cast Charlize Theron as his opposite. She’s pretty great in naturalistic roles, but as a female heroin she comes off superficial and unconvincing.
Compositing was pretty average at best. Shots were not lit consistently, and the flying sequences looked like something straight out of GTA. The twisters in the middle of the street was ultra corny, and live action mattes were pretty poorly layered.
Was a bit of a letdown, but oh well. It’ll make the next big superhero flick : The Dark Knight that much more mouthwateringly awesome.
P.S. HA HA cock.
May 27, 2008
Oh Jesus. (sorry religious types, but it deserves a vain call). “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. Even the name sucks now that I think about it. What was George Lucas, and Spielberg thinking? They certainly kept the retro 40-60s thing happening, but that’s all that could be considered consistently good. After ILM cranked out Transformers and Ironman, I would have thought that they would be able to wrangle sweet compositing work in their sleep for this film. It was terrible. I think it is first technically obvious during the stupid jeep jungle chase scene.
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May 19, 2008
21 was fun. It was witty, but not cheesily stale. A film with both Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne HAS to be good yeah? Correct!
A bunch of MIT students join the card counting circle, lead by a MIT maths lecturer, and make big dollars by sweeping Vegas over the weekends. It’s amazing because they manage to keep it pretty interesting without guns, violence or drugs; but there are points where it’s pretty slow and dragged out. The card counting deal was pretty well explained, so you didn’t get lost in the math at all.
If anything bad was to be said- apart from the length, I think the ending was a bit rushed. Everyone was too accepting, and resolved, and the fact that the whole story sat within a giant ‘narrated’ outer sandwich was a bit corny.
Wasn’t the greatest thing ever, but I totally recommend it.
- Sweet, heading out to go see Ironman again!
May 5, 2008
I was planning to see it just because his suit looked so damn freaking slick- and not care about how plot driven it was. I was totally in for a pleasant surprise! Robert Downey Jr was an excellent lead, bringing a humorous, but slick flavour to ‘Ironman”s personality.
It was so full of grunt, slick cg, and fun fighting. I loved that the Middle Eastern guys were automagically made the bad guys, and there was none of that metaphorical tosh mixed in. I don’t even feel the need to pick it apart; it was a film made to be entertaining, and not meaningful or touching. It’s just a rich genius who builds a sweet suit, blows shit up, and saves the day. Totally worth a second or third helping.
