Batman
So I went to see the new Batman movie by myself last night. I end up seeing most of the movies I want to see by myself, because most of my friends have seen them by the time I have enough time to go. I don't mind: it's like taking myself on a date, and I don't have to worry too much about what happens before and after the movie.
Incidentally, Christian Bale appears to have made the colossal mistake of agreeing to be in the fourth Terminator film. After the third film, why did anyone think a fourth was a good idea?
Anyway, back to Batman.
I am ambivalent.
I heard so many good things about this movie, and in particular about Heath Ledger's performance, that I guess I was expecting something more than what I got.
For one, it was filmed with Ritalin!Cam. The kind of shaky, follow-everyone-around, never-stage-a-shot kind of filming that's oh so popular because people somehow think it looks "realistic" or "edgy" or whatever. All it does is confuse me and occasionally make me sick to my stomach. The only properly-staged shots were the big action sequences, which meant that when important things were happening (i.e. dialog and juman interaction scenes), I didn't always catch all of it.
Second, and this is a minor quibble: Batman talked too much. In Batman Begins, he has very few lines, and Bale delivers them chillingly, in that deep, gravelly Batman-voice. In this film, he gets reams of dialog, and in the Batman-voice it just sounds... well, alternately dorky and not very believable.
I could get past that, though, if it weren't for the script. If the script had been uniformly bad, this would be easier to swallow. It wasn't. It had moments where it was really, really good. Not brilliant, but very solid, and very effective. Until they weren't. See, the movie kept freaking *explaining* why it was being clever.
There was a lot of explaining in this movie. A whole lot of tell-don't-show, especially with regards to the Joker. Someone would explain the situation. Then, later, there would be a really effective scene, with a good punch-line, until someone then explained why the punchline was brilliant, repeatedly. The Joker's script is particularly bad for that, which is unfortunate, because Heath Ledger's performance is otherwise quite chilling.
So, yeah. I was disappointed, but only because I was expecting something far more.
The movie is decent, but suffers from the script and the camera work (if I noticed the camera-work, it means it was noticeably bad: I don't usually pay attention to that in movies). I'd wait for the video.
Incidentally, Christian Bale appears to have made the colossal mistake of agreeing to be in the fourth Terminator film. After the third film, why did anyone think a fourth was a good idea?
Anyway, back to Batman.
I am ambivalent.
I heard so many good things about this movie, and in particular about Heath Ledger's performance, that I guess I was expecting something more than what I got.
For one, it was filmed with Ritalin!Cam. The kind of shaky, follow-everyone-around, never-stage-a-shot kind of filming that's oh so popular because people somehow think it looks "realistic" or "edgy" or whatever. All it does is confuse me and occasionally make me sick to my stomach. The only properly-staged shots were the big action sequences, which meant that when important things were happening (i.e. dialog and juman interaction scenes), I didn't always catch all of it.
Second, and this is a minor quibble: Batman talked too much. In Batman Begins, he has very few lines, and Bale delivers them chillingly, in that deep, gravelly Batman-voice. In this film, he gets reams of dialog, and in the Batman-voice it just sounds... well, alternately dorky and not very believable.
I could get past that, though, if it weren't for the script. If the script had been uniformly bad, this would be easier to swallow. It wasn't. It had moments where it was really, really good. Not brilliant, but very solid, and very effective. Until they weren't. See, the movie kept freaking *explaining* why it was being clever.
There was a lot of explaining in this movie. A whole lot of tell-don't-show, especially with regards to the Joker. Someone would explain the situation. Then, later, there would be a really effective scene, with a good punch-line, until someone then explained why the punchline was brilliant, repeatedly. The Joker's script is particularly bad for that, which is unfortunate, because Heath Ledger's performance is otherwise quite chilling.
So, yeah. I was disappointed, but only because I was expecting something far more.
The movie is decent, but suffers from the script and the camera work (if I noticed the camera-work, it means it was noticeably bad: I don't usually pay attention to that in movies). I'd wait for the video.