Movie night reflections
Since lockdown, I’ve made Saturday night movie night, and rewatched my The Hobbit and LOTR extended edition DVDs and now all my Batman movies (which don’t include the live action TV series, the animated stuff or Batfleck). The Lego Batman Movie capped it off very amusingly as it riffs off past iterations. I was going to list them in my preferred order. Indeed, the other week I was going to list some of what is wrong with Batman and Robin, (so much!) but Joel Schumacher recently passed away, so maybe now is not the time.
What I was surprised by was that The Dark Knight didn’t impress me as much as it has in the past. I rated it about as highly as Barman Begins. I think the reason is that right now, spectacle doesn’t mean as much to me as emotional investment, and there’s less of that in TDK. Yes, there’s Bruce-Alfred stuff, but Jim Gordon’s son doesn’t pull my heartstrings and Bruce/Rachel was sunk in the first film, only Bruce didn’t realise it. Selina’s interactions with him in The Dark Knight Rises as both Bruce and Batman and ability to see the whole person after The Revelation Of What She Done Did is a real contrast to how Rachel, who works within the law, can’t deal with him being Batman. Bruce holds on to the idea that they can have a post-Barman life, after the ‘maybe with strings’ she gives him at the end of Begins, but her choosing Harvey who also acts within the law and is present in their relationship always felt inevitable. The recasting of Rachel doesn’t help any here.
I have a lot more emotional investment in The Dark Knight Rises, even though I think the plot doesn’t work as well as it needs to. But hey, watching Hardy’s Bane after Batman and Robin’s take on the character is satisfying, and by about the sixth watch, I found I understood 80 per cent of his dialogue, which is about the same amount as I understood of Gary Oldman’s Gordon.
I’m not sure how to rank the Batmans because Will Arnett’s take has thrown me. Bale is first and Clooney is last (he manages a few creditable scenes as Bruce Wayne around the Alfred-of-my-heart, but otherwise is miscast and uncomfortable). I look forward to seeing Pattinson’s take on the character…some day, even if I don’t know how it will fit into the DCEU as it stands.
Having said that, when Nolan’s Tenet comes out in cinemas (and i. there’s been no opening date for them where I live, ii. just because something is open now doesn't mean I'm going to rush there iii. the release date keeps getting pushed back), I don’t feel drawn to go and see it. Cerainly not in the way I do with Mulan.
I enjoyed the Burton films a lot. There’s an interesting tension between Burton’s signature vision (stronger in Returns), what they saw as the inherent campness of comic book movies at that point in the history of the genre and the influence of gangster movies. Although the Schumacher films are meant to be in the same continuity, the recasting of Batman (and Harvey Dent) and change of tone make it easier to imagine that Batman Returns’ Bruce and Selina do meet again and have further adventures. I imprinted on them, okay? And also Michael Gough as Alfred, which is not to say I haven’t appreciated Caine, Pertwee, Irons or Fiennes’ takes on the character. Although I love all the live-action Selinas. And maybe I'm being nitpicky that David Mazouz never actually played Batman.
But then there’s also the unspoken question of what Joker was doing during TDKR that will sadly never be answered. And I have questions about what Selina made of the events of the first two movies, because the fall of the gangs, the threat to the Narrows etc must have affected her. I’d also love to see an encounter between her and Rachel. But the draft of a fic I have floating aroud as the result of this rewatch is about something ele entirely.
Finally, to go back to where I started. I had a similar realisation about the LoTR films. I used to hold the position that FoTR was my fave, but The Two Towers was the better film, but this time around, I was all ‘Nah, Fellowship is my favourite AND the best.’ Part of this may be because its extended edition is just better balanced, but I think it’s mostly emotional investment. Frodo and co. go through A LOT before they reach Rivendell (and the Fellowship is forged, even). And although I love Eowyn to bits and the beauty of the White City is achingly good, the Frodo-Sam-Gollum stuff feels repetitive, so that’s a huge strand I lose interest in. The magnificence of the Battle of Helm’s Deep overshadows that battle at Pelennor fields for me, and the mini distracting battle has diminished returns, even though it’s only meant to be a distraction and didn’t they mostly make it up?
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/428490.html.
What I was surprised by was that The Dark Knight didn’t impress me as much as it has in the past. I rated it about as highly as Barman Begins. I think the reason is that right now, spectacle doesn’t mean as much to me as emotional investment, and there’s less of that in TDK. Yes, there’s Bruce-Alfred stuff, but Jim Gordon’s son doesn’t pull my heartstrings and Bruce/Rachel was sunk in the first film, only Bruce didn’t realise it. Selina’s interactions with him in The Dark Knight Rises as both Bruce and Batman and ability to see the whole person after The Revelation Of What She Done Did is a real contrast to how Rachel, who works within the law, can’t deal with him being Batman. Bruce holds on to the idea that they can have a post-Barman life, after the ‘maybe with strings’ she gives him at the end of Begins, but her choosing Harvey who also acts within the law and is present in their relationship always felt inevitable. The recasting of Rachel doesn’t help any here.
I have a lot more emotional investment in The Dark Knight Rises, even though I think the plot doesn’t work as well as it needs to. But hey, watching Hardy’s Bane after Batman and Robin’s take on the character is satisfying, and by about the sixth watch, I found I understood 80 per cent of his dialogue, which is about the same amount as I understood of Gary Oldman’s Gordon.
I’m not sure how to rank the Batmans because Will Arnett’s take has thrown me. Bale is first and Clooney is last (he manages a few creditable scenes as Bruce Wayne around the Alfred-of-my-heart, but otherwise is miscast and uncomfortable). I look forward to seeing Pattinson’s take on the character…some day, even if I don’t know how it will fit into the DCEU as it stands.
Having said that, when Nolan’s Tenet comes out in cinemas (and i. there’s been no opening date for them where I live, ii. just because something is open now doesn't mean I'm going to rush there iii. the release date keeps getting pushed back), I don’t feel drawn to go and see it. Cerainly not in the way I do with Mulan.
I enjoyed the Burton films a lot. There’s an interesting tension between Burton’s signature vision (stronger in Returns), what they saw as the inherent campness of comic book movies at that point in the history of the genre and the influence of gangster movies. Although the Schumacher films are meant to be in the same continuity, the recasting of Batman (and Harvey Dent) and change of tone make it easier to imagine that Batman Returns’ Bruce and Selina do meet again and have further adventures. I imprinted on them, okay? And also Michael Gough as Alfred, which is not to say I haven’t appreciated Caine, Pertwee, Irons or Fiennes’ takes on the character. Although I love all the live-action Selinas. And maybe I'm being nitpicky that David Mazouz never actually played Batman.
But then there’s also the unspoken question of what Joker was doing during TDKR that will sadly never be answered. And I have questions about what Selina made of the events of the first two movies, because the fall of the gangs, the threat to the Narrows etc must have affected her. I’d also love to see an encounter between her and Rachel. But the draft of a fic I have floating aroud as the result of this rewatch is about something ele entirely.
Finally, to go back to where I started. I had a similar realisation about the LoTR films. I used to hold the position that FoTR was my fave, but The Two Towers was the better film, but this time around, I was all ‘Nah, Fellowship is my favourite AND the best.’ Part of this may be because its extended edition is just better balanced, but I think it’s mostly emotional investment. Frodo and co. go through A LOT before they reach Rivendell (and the Fellowship is forged, even). And although I love Eowyn to bits and the beauty of the White City is achingly good, the Frodo-Sam-Gollum stuff feels repetitive, so that’s a huge strand I lose interest in. The magnificence of the Battle of Helm’s Deep overshadows that battle at Pelennor fields for me, and the mini distracting battle has diminished returns, even though it’s only meant to be a distraction and didn’t they mostly make it up?
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/428490.html.