Batman's Sing-Along Blog

[hth_the_first]

Are you spoiler-safe for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and The Dark Knight? Did one or both of them make you angry with rage, even as you cooed and petted them? Did you notice how they're practically the same movie, except completely different?

Comments

[ticketsonmyself]

THANK YOU for articulating one of the (multiple, significant) problems I had with Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I see you've friended me, probably due to my comment(s) somewhere else - I'm definitely friending you back, although I suspect your friends list is so long you don't check it much!

[very_improbable]

and they gave Bruce some kind of snappy comeback that, I can’t recall, had something to do with being a nebbish with bad fashion sense?

I couldn't hear Bruce's line very well in the cinema, but I'm told it was "I'm not wearing hockey pads." (I initially heard "hockey pants" and interpreted it as having something to do with mocking his dress sense as well, but if the other one is correct, I assume the intended meaning was more to do with your other point--Bat!Brian is just a dude, using whatever he had around the house to fight crime, whereas Batman is The Guy.)

[ratcreature]

I haven't watchd DK but I guess that line is supposed to mean only rich guys owning companies to develop their special equipment in secret can affort to be superheroes....

[darksybarite]

I think it was "a hockey mask".

[eremos]

Dr. Horrible: I agree almost 100% with your analysis and your opinion. It was up and down, but in the end Penny's death was unnecessary and out-of-place because, as you said, the writers had discovered that the story they were about to tell was too severe for a light-hearted musical comedy

[eremos]

(continued from above)

Personally, I'm not big on heroes or heroism. Trying and failing is not very attractive in my eyes, and that's why I like Batman in the first place. He doesn't always succeed. Heroes are defined by their actions, not their intentions, and thus Brian is not a hero in my opinion. His crowning achievement was to attempt an endeavor far outside his abilities and fail predictability. That indicates a flawed objective, poor planning and equally poor execution, and that is not terribly impressive. Batman is a hero, most of the time, because he gets shit done. It is important the we make this distinction: celebrating people who try and fail is celebrating failure. We must celebrate the results, not the attempts to achieve them.

[abigail_n]

I disagree about Dr. Horrible, in that I don't think the story was, as you say it, 5/6 siding with his social agenda and 1/6 slapping it in the face. I think the story was always opposed to him, and always viewed Penny's approach as the correct one. The fact is, Dr. Horrible talks a good line about wanting social change, but he tells the full truth in the musical's first scene - the world is horrible and he needs to rule it. I don't think Dr. Horrible is angry because corruption is rampant and good people are treating the symptom instead of the disease. I think he's angry because he doesn't get adulation and hot chicks. Much as he despises Captain Hammer, he'd leap at the chance to be him, and since he can't, he'll tear the world down instead.

That said, I'm in complete agreement about The Dark Knight (though I still liked it as a piece of storytelling). I walked away from the ending dissatisfied and perplexed, feeling that I'd just been told that what people need is a handsome white man to lead them, even if his perfection is

[very_improbable]

And this just after we're shown ordinary, and decidedly imperfect, people, choosing not to play the Joker's game, no matter how scared and petty they are - the idea that these people need to believe in the lie of Harvey Dent is indeed offensive.

Yes, this! And it's not the only place in the movie that we see Gothamites making that choice, on one scale or another. The narrative works as hard as I think it could to make Harvey as crucial as Batman & Gordon say he is--but in the end, it's still saying "The people deserve to be lied to." This is bad regardless of context, and after the movie we've just seen, it really doesn't fly.

And do the people deserve and/or need to be lied to because they're not strong enough to handle the truth, or because they're good and they need a beautiful lie as a reward for being good, or what? I've, um, seen it three times now and that final speech seems less coherent every time...

(I agree with you about the way the narrative treats Brian, too.)

[not_sally]

I read this when you posted and I find myself sadly agreeing with you on most of it.
Also, because I promised him I'd link you, one of my BFF's opinions on Batman:
http://users.livejournal.com/__marcelo/400505.html#cutid1