Thoughts on Batyaoi.
Amidst much raspberry daquiri, faithinfire has introduces me to Batman and Batman Forever.
For the former I...honestly can't really see what the big deal is. It's like they took the Adam West silliness and tried to make it Dark and Gritty--and wound up taking out all the bad bits of the Adam West. The Batcostume and fighting looks pretty lame, bar the clocktower Joker/Batman fight, but I can chalk that up to the 80s. Jack Nicholson is okay. Not great, but okay. The grin looks more worrisome than outright creepy, but he pulls off the "creepy guy who won't stop laughing at his own unfunny jokes" angle pretty well. Heath Ledger's performance was far superior, but a lot of that is because they were trying to portray two different people. Jack!Joker was a silly guy with a homicidal streak and a completely unexplained thing for the (rather rantworthy, I'll get to that in a moment) gratuitous love interest. Heath!Joker was a far more disturbing individual who just wanted to watch the world burn. Gimmicky humor in the form of boxing gloves on springs isn't his thing, he's a far different flavor of messed up.
The rest of the plot is ridiculous, and not in the Joker way. As I said to faithinfire, it almost seems as if most of the exposition and explaining in the movie was left on the cutting room floor and we were only getting half the movie. Admittedly the daquiri was taking effect around the midway point of the film, but while I knew who was where I didn't know any of their motivations or why they were doing that one thing they were doing or what the buggering hell that woman was doing in the Batcave.
Oh, and Batman kills people by blowing up factories and throwing them to their deaths. I disapprove of this tremendously.
One of the things that often makes or breaks a movie for me is the way the love interest (and is there ever not a love interest in a superhero movie?) is handled, and this one snapped the movie over her knee. I'm not sure if she dies in Batman Returns or just fades out of the series but I'll be glad to be rid of her. She's a useless lump who prefers whining about why Bruce won't open up to her while the Joker is threatening the city. This is while she is standing in the Batcave (for no apparent reason, why is she there?), seeing the most intimate parts of Bruce's life that he's shown no one bar Alfred. This is also someone who gets paralyzed with fear just sitting next to the Joker, which might be understandable on a normal civilian but is idiotic on a woman who's photographed war zones. The superhero franchise really, REALLY needs to get over its damsel in distress complex and have women who exist for more than being millstones around the noble knight's neck.
Which brings me to Batman Forever, a flamboyant and rather silly film that manages to be more emotionally moving (especially the Grayson's death scene, and the happy family bit right before it because you know that it's all going to be horribly shattered in the next fifteen minutes) than Dark and Gritty Batman. I also admit that it was unrepentantly wacky, in a 90s dayglo sort of way, but it was fun that way.
And oh, the slash. The slash. I am 99.9% sure that the Riddler was gay in this one, and Two-Face somewhere in the department of open-minded, so the slashometer went through the roof. Especially in the scenes where they're jumping around and hugging each other and about two inches from outright kissing. It was far more wacky than the more subtle Riddler and more complex and angsty Two-Face I'm used to watching (and writing about, as seen earlier), but they were still a fun couple of guys to watch because they were so obviously having the time of their lives. It's not serious business, but it's fun.
And yes, I'll have TFA Season 3 stuff up tomorrow when I'm not toasted and tired. My one comment is...what the fuck, writers? Take my heart out and step on it at four in the morning, why don't you? OH WAIT, YOU DID.
For the former I...honestly can't really see what the big deal is. It's like they took the Adam West silliness and tried to make it Dark and Gritty--and wound up taking out all the bad bits of the Adam West. The Batcostume and fighting looks pretty lame, bar the clocktower Joker/Batman fight, but I can chalk that up to the 80s. Jack Nicholson is okay. Not great, but okay. The grin looks more worrisome than outright creepy, but he pulls off the "creepy guy who won't stop laughing at his own unfunny jokes" angle pretty well. Heath Ledger's performance was far superior, but a lot of that is because they were trying to portray two different people. Jack!Joker was a silly guy with a homicidal streak and a completely unexplained thing for the (rather rantworthy, I'll get to that in a moment) gratuitous love interest. Heath!Joker was a far more disturbing individual who just wanted to watch the world burn. Gimmicky humor in the form of boxing gloves on springs isn't his thing, he's a far different flavor of messed up.
The rest of the plot is ridiculous, and not in the Joker way. As I said to faithinfire, it almost seems as if most of the exposition and explaining in the movie was left on the cutting room floor and we were only getting half the movie. Admittedly the daquiri was taking effect around the midway point of the film, but while I knew who was where I didn't know any of their motivations or why they were doing that one thing they were doing or what the buggering hell that woman was doing in the Batcave.
Oh, and Batman kills people by blowing up factories and throwing them to their deaths. I disapprove of this tremendously.
One of the things that often makes or breaks a movie for me is the way the love interest (and is there ever not a love interest in a superhero movie?) is handled, and this one snapped the movie over her knee. I'm not sure if she dies in Batman Returns or just fades out of the series but I'll be glad to be rid of her. She's a useless lump who prefers whining about why Bruce won't open up to her while the Joker is threatening the city. This is while she is standing in the Batcave (for no apparent reason, why is she there?), seeing the most intimate parts of Bruce's life that he's shown no one bar Alfred. This is also someone who gets paralyzed with fear just sitting next to the Joker, which might be understandable on a normal civilian but is idiotic on a woman who's photographed war zones. The superhero franchise really, REALLY needs to get over its damsel in distress complex and have women who exist for more than being millstones around the noble knight's neck.
Which brings me to Batman Forever, a flamboyant and rather silly film that manages to be more emotionally moving (especially the Grayson's death scene, and the happy family bit right before it because you know that it's all going to be horribly shattered in the next fifteen minutes) than Dark and Gritty Batman. I also admit that it was unrepentantly wacky, in a 90s dayglo sort of way, but it was fun that way.
And oh, the slash. The slash. I am 99.9% sure that the Riddler was gay in this one, and Two-Face somewhere in the department of open-minded, so the slashometer went through the roof. Especially in the scenes where they're jumping around and hugging each other and about two inches from outright kissing. It was far more wacky than the more subtle Riddler and more complex and angsty Two-Face I'm used to watching (and writing about, as seen earlier), but they were still a fun couple of guys to watch because they were so obviously having the time of their lives. It's not serious business, but it's fun.
And yes, I'll have TFA Season 3 stuff up tomorrow when I'm not toasted and tired. My one comment is...what the fuck, writers? Take my heart out and step on it at four in the morning, why don't you? OH WAIT, YOU DID.