Movies (recently seen)

[Hi! My name is: Katie]

Tonight I am going to see the Dark Knight at Midnight!!! I'll let you know how it is.
~Katie

[Ryan_DuBois]

Damn!

...And I thought I'd be the cool one. Alas, I'm not seeing The Dark Knight until tommorow. At least we'll be able to compare reviews, I guess.

The joke's on you.

[ChubbyTeletubby]

Ya, Dark Knight seems like it's going to be the crowning achievement of the batman franchise.

I look forward to seeing it in the theaters. Not keen on seeing it opening weekend, though. I'll probably check it out next weekend, when the hungry masses aren't out in so much force.

I honestly haven't heard ONE negative critique of the film yet. I'm sort of wondering if it's because it's Heath Ledger's final performance, and nobody wants to talk ill of the dead, or because it's a GENUINELY great film.

I have a feeling it's the latter. It's funny how in these batman films the role of the villain is always the main focus.

My favorite Batman to date is the 1997 version with Mr. Freeze.

Of course I only kid.

NO SPOILERS, assholes! That goes for you Ryan and you too, End. No fucking spoilers. You too, Katie.

[Ryan_DuBois]

My favorite so far is Batman Begins (although I wish The Scarecrow had been a little bit more... scarecrowy; basically, he was just a dude who put a potato sack on his head to terrify people into insanity). Following this is Tim Burton's version. I think that Jack Nicholson did a wonderful job as the Joker, no matter how bad he looks next to Heath Ledger.

I've got to say that the new series looks a lot more promising in almost every aspect; it's more realistic, it has great special effects, there's an intricate plot, and I like the fact that almost every original actor (not Katie Holmes) is reassuming their role.

(If there are any spoilers in my review, I'll be sure to post a heads-up, Chubby.)

[Hi! My name is: Katie]

Katie's Dark Knight Review

It is often my opinion that giant explosions serve to release me from the suspended reality in which movie viewers hang. Apparently that is not the case when super heroes are involved. So, here's the break down of my favorite moments, free of major spoilers...

It started out as most all theater movies start- with the trailers. They took the new Watchman trailer out for a spin. It took me a moment to catch that it was the Watchman, I could feel this tickle at the back of my brain when I saw the blue guy, but it just didn't hit me until I saw... the button. It looks excellent. They also floated something called the Spirit, a Will Eisner comic turned flick. While I'm a fan of A Contract with God, I'm not sure I'll be into the Spirit... we'll see. The new 007 looks much better than the last two... I like the idea of Bond going rogue. The new Terminator movie offended me. It looked interesting until they announced it to be the Terminator, then it just seemed stupid.

The movie definitely focused on the bad guys. And, it was so easy to love the bad guys. I like the way the bad guys were used in this movie. It was a more intelligent use of villains than I am used to I think.

Batman was kind of... well, someone has to say it... he was real emo.

The most memorable moment for me has to do with how the Joker got his scars. At first, I thought this a really tacky scene, and not in keeping with the quality of the film, but as the movie wore on, it came to be one of my favorite moments. I think the Joker was perfectly and delightfully insane.

My least favorite thing about the movie was Batman's lame scratchy throat. Ugh.

My favorite political agenda was not the main one, but the one in which Batman fought against the FISA Amendment Act. I felt like cheering at that moment. That was one battle I desperately wanted someone to win, I'm still hoping the ACLU will do their magic, but it was nice to see the caped crusader on the trail as well.

(spoiler alert)
My favorite scene involved Heath Ledger in a Dress! He was kind of prancing along with a detonator.

Overall it was a very magical movie there were many times I was literally on the edge of my seat. Well played Warner Bros... well played.

[Dragavan]

I'm sort of wondering if it's because it's Heath Ledger's final performance

Well... It's not. He had just finished the "real world" scenes of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and that will be his final film. He was supposed to play like four characters in that movie, the real world character and then like three fantasy world forms of himself. Since he had finished the real world part they simply needed to get other actors to play his fantasy world selves.

[apotheosis]

Reserved tickets a month ago. Going to see it tonight. I can't wait. I watched Batman Begins last night with my girlfriend again to refresh myself on the current plotline. This is definitely my favorite Batman franchise. Plus, Christian Bale is a hottie.

[End Master]

Saw the new Batman movie.

It was pretty cool. I liked it better than Hellboy 2. I won't spoil it, but I'll just address some stuff Katie mentioned.

The Joker's story about his scars almost disappointed me until he changed it again when he was telling someone else. That was in keeping with his "If I have to have an origin, I prefer it to be multiple choice!" line in the comics.

This was probably the best portrayal of the Joker I've seen, since Heath didn't just do the insane laughter bit, he actually did the dark and deadly calm Joker as well.

Did Bale have that voice enhancer in Batman Begins? Because I don't remember it, or it was at least more subtle. Despite the lame voice enhancer, Bale's doing a pretty good job at being Batman. Still, everytime I see Bale I can't help but remember him as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.

Anyway, I think this is my favorite Batman movie so far.

The previews I saw:

The new Mummy movie looks like it'll be entertaining, so I'll be going to see that when it comes out.

The Watchmen movie I'm a bit cautious about. I really don't see how they'll be able to do justice to the comic. At least not without making it a 3 hour movie and in at least 2 parts.

The new Terminator movie looks alright. I'll probably see it, but I've never been a Terminator fanatic. I think they should've stopped with 2.

The remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" looks meh.

Some generic werewolf movie that I don't remember the name of looked boring.

Finally, there was some DeCaprio movie that I don't remember anything about either. Fuck it.

[apotheosis]

Dark Knight was phenomenal. Enough said. Go see it.

[Ryan_DuBois]

My review

Here is how I concocted my overall rating (out of ten):

- Storyline/plot... 9

- Characters... 10 (would've been an 8.5, but... Heath Ledger was on fire)

- Setting... 9

- Excitement... 10

- Realism... 8 (by "realism" I'm talking primarily about how the characters act in given situations; kind of the opposite of "corniness")

- Effects... 9

- General Enjoyability... 9

I took the mean of these values, which is

(9 + 9 + 9 + 8 + 10 + 10 + 9) / 7 ~= 9

- Overall Rating... 9


THIS SHORT REVIEW HAS MINOR SPOILERS

Okay; so I thought the movie opened up with an awesome scene that throws you right into the action -- the bank robbery. The way The Joker decieved his fellow criminals showed you three key things about him: he's cold-blooded, he's dangerous, and he's as clever as a fox. At this point, you still don't realize the most important thing about him, though: he's without a cause.

The struggle between "good" and "evil" was kind of a roller-coaster throughout the entire movie. In the beginning, it seems that the good guys are winning, due to the efforts of Harvey Dent (the new DA and Gotham's "White Knight"), Commissioner Gordon, and Batman. Eventually these three are successful in putting away the vast majority of Gotham's criminals.

Then The Joker shows up.

He's got careful planning down to science (regardless of whatever else he may say). He begins by killing off several of Gotham's key citizens, announcing that more will die every day that Batman does not reveal his identity. In doing so, he turns most of Gotham against Batman with just a wave of his hand, and gets a lot of dangerous criminals to join him.

As the tables start to turn, Bruce Wayne begins to conisder whether or not he should give in and reveal himself.

This is just the beginning of a film that ended up being a lot darker than Batman Begins.


Things I liked/disliked (THIS CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS)

- I liked Heath Ledger as the Joker. This was the finest acting job I've seen for some time.

- I liked all the action and suspense.

- I liked how much more threatening the antagonists were than those of Batman Begins.

- I liked the storyline.

- I liked the clever twists and turns.

- I liked how much darker this movie was, compared with all the other Batman movies.

- I disliked how it seemed super fast-paced. This is usually okay in action movies, but there were no long, drawn-out scenes to establish the new characters (aside from The Joker).

- I disliked how complex and hard to follow the plot was. I might have just been tired, but I had quite a struggle with certain minor parts.

- I disliked some parts that seemed too unrealistic; among these were Harvey Dent climbing out of his hospital bed just moments after being severely burned and going through amazingly radical personality changes, everybody assuming that Harvey Dent is Batman without finding a shred of evidence, The Joker managing to attack a van with Harvey Dent (a.k.a. "Batman") inside it, when everybody must have known that he was planning on doing just that, and Mr. Fox declaring his retirement, due to Bruce Wayne setting up a gigantic network of monitors for spying on people around Gothom (he only needed them to find The Joker, who was planning on blowing up two ships carrying several hundreds of people).

- I disliked how Bruce Wayne/Batman didn't have as big of a role as I was used to. The roles of Harvey Dent and The Joker were almost equally large, if not larger.

- I disliked almost everything about Two-face (other than his appearance), which sucked since I was getting all excited when Harvey Dent was flipping his coin throughout the film.

- I disliked how Rachael Dawes seemed kind of... Skanky.


So there you have it -- there's a lot a liked, and a lot I disliked.

But the good far outweighed the bad.

The movie was fantastic.

And yes, Katie, I stole your clever "white text" idea.

[donteatpoop]

Kung Fu Panda

Ahem... Kung Fu Panda kicked a shit-ton of ass.

[Hi! My name is: Katie]

Blade Runner in one theater... last night... yeah you missed it... loser.

I just saw Blade Runner! What a great movie! I don't understand why we don't make more cyberpunk movies like that... I guess the closest we have in recent years is maybe the Matrix movies... and shamefully I liked the first one a lot.

I really enjoyed watching the Old Man from Battlestar Galactica make little paper shapes. He must like the idea of robots that look like humans.

SPOILER ALERT
The costume was great when the Blade Runner was chasing the snake stripper girl whose name I didn't bother learning... I mean... when he shot her blood like ran all down the inside of her clear plastic raincoat. No one would ever choose a costume like that these days. Because everyone knows plastic is not the material of the future.

AND

I kind of expected Rachel to be a skinjob, but I felt sorry for her. Which restored my faith in my own humanity.

AND
I really liked the scene where Leon is being interviewed and he doesn't know how to react so he just shoots the interviewer.

Also I saw it in this totally awesome ancient theater. It was so nice just a great experience all the way around.

[Dragavan]

But which version was it? They have like three, including the real director's cut that is by far the best of the lot.

[Hi! My name is: Katie]

It was the Final Cut... here's the info from the website:


"Visually spectacular, intensely action-packed and powerfully prophetic since its debut, director Ridley Scott's sci-fi noir thriller returns in a definitive Final Cut, including extended scenes and never-before-seen special effects. In a future of high-tech possibility soured by urban and social decay, 21st-century detective Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) hunts for fugitive, muderous replicants—and is drawn to a mystery woman (Sean Young) whose secrets may undermine his soul. Based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. Co-starring Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh and Daryl Hannah. Music by Vangelis. (R, 117 mins)"

[ChubbyTeletubby]

Wow.

Just wow. Just got home.

I felt the joker had imbued me with part of his spirit upon leaving the theater. I felt emotionally drained but somehow energized.

Wow. They did it. This is the crowning achievement of DC/Warner Bros..

More later. One of the best, if not THE best action flick ever.

Just wow. I'm stunned.

RIP, Heath.

RIP...

EDIT: Ryan, you took the words out of my mouth. Brilliant critique. However, I beg the differ.

This film stands alone, as far as I'm concerned. Stands alone. I give it a 10. I'm used to mediocrity. This was anything but.

Heath Ledger, as far as I'm concerned, is the greatest actor I've ever EXPERIENCED.

I literally left the theater feeling...different. I drove different...I talked different....

I felt different. I feel he gave us part of his soul here.

A lot was crammed into 2 hours, true. The batman voice was a little annoying, true.

I really...never experienced anything like this. A connection to the chaos bringer, the joker. A complicated villain. How DID he get those scars?

Villain? No. Well...yes...but he is the Leonardo of villains. An artist. The most amazing performance I've ever encountered.