So you ask what I've been doing since I dropped off the face of the earth
Stream of consciousness or pure tangential nonsense?
I have exactly four people I hang out with on a regular basis. Megan, Matt, Josh, and Chris. And maybe about 12 people I see on a less regular basis who I could call friends, or good friends, or whatever they would like to be called so as not to feel left out. They are mostly detached from anyone in my past, in spite of having known a couple of them for half of my life and therefore technically and ironically they are from my past. My point, if I had one, is that as I have gotten older I require interaction with fewer people. I like being able to kind of pick my new family, slowly weeding out the "bad" ones until I'm down to a core group of die-hard loyal Heatherists. When Daniel Plainview delivers his monologue about seeing the worst in people, I feel it deep inside on a level I thought no one could possibly understand. Obviously someone did because it's in a movie. Now, I don't hate ALL people or I wouldn't be close to anyone, but I definitely relate to the sentiment that "I don't need to look past seeing them to get all I need." It seems like I have posted about this before, deja boo. I'm really a walking contradiction, I also love people and many of the things they create. So anyway, that's where I've been, hanging out with some of the people I don't hate. I might be what they call "bitter." This is what works for me, right now anyway.
It's hard, trying to decide what my defining characteristics are. Figuring out who I am is so complex, I contradict myself at least once a day, I imagine. It's looking at the extremes of my past behavior and finding that middle ground, trying to find what is truest of me, in what situations I have been consistent and how. One thing I hope could be said of me if I died tomorrow is that I was a person of integrity. I do not live by any other person's moral code but my own(which is part of my code in itself) and honesty holds the highest value to me. I think what separates me from a lot of people is that I don't believe that what you do for a living is how you should identify yourself as a human being. If you're being paid to do something, it has nothing to do with who you are. If you are giving emotionally/spiritually as much as you gain fiscally, it's much more likely you closely identify with your chosen profession(and you're probably in social services). It's what you give yourself over to that defines who you are. If you have no passions and a job to pay the bills(or your ego) and not much else, you don't really impress me as being worth the air you're breathing. I guess this kinda ties in with my lack of motivation to do anything that would generate revenue. I don't and never have identified myself by my "accomplishments" or lack thereof because I am overwhelmed with passion and zest for life(even if that means hating it half the time). It's easy to "get a job, you bum" but how often do you hear someone say "get a personality, you waste of space." And then I think about people like Shanna who have no passions, personality, or contributions to society(job) and I cannot fathom how this person has not been struck down by the forces of the universe for being totally pointless.
I guess that was the end of that train of thought. Anyway, I went and saw The Dark Knight earlier today and so here is my review:
I thought it was brilliant. Naysayers be damned, it was the best Batman movie ever. It was to die for.
Not enough backstory on The Joker, you say? That's because he is supposed to be an enigma. There's not really an official origin story for him anyway. I did find myself thinking he could use a little more screen time though, probably just cause I wanted to see more of the role that killed Heath Ledger.
The gravelly quality of Bale's batman voice was slightly over the top, but still he would have to disguise his voice, obviously, so it made sense on that level. I like how the last two movies focus more on Bruce Wayne's self-concept that he is more Batman than Bruce. Bruce is the mask, not Batman. It doesn't matter how shallow or poorly scripted Bruce is, because that reflects the detachment he feels from his "real" persona. He only cares about Bruce Wayne to the extent that he maintains appearances well enough to keep his true self safely hidden.
The Rachel whoever character is the only character in the movie that was yawn-worthy. Not because of the actresses who portrayed her(although Katie Holmes was markedly horrid in Batman Begins), just because her death was sort of glossed over and the way she kissed Bruce and then wrote the final note about marrying Harvey Dent makes you kinda not like her as much. So it's like, just around the time she dies you stop caring about her character's fate because she's too flakey. Passing over her death like it was nothing might have been an attempt on the director's part to show how quickly things happen before anyone has time to adjust(just like they would in real life). And also she's not a real person in teh comics.
I think one of the reasons the movie was so packed full of action the entire two and a half hours is because that's how things really would be if the same level of crime was going on in the real world. What I mean is that the pacing is actually more correct because there wouldn't be a lot of downtime if you were working in law enforcement during a string of domestic terrorist attacks. It would be go go go go until you catch the badguys.
Ooh, and a minor nitpicky thing, I'm not sure I really like the way this director does his fight scenes. I watched Batman Begins last night for a refresher course and noticed that it was very Cloverfield in that you could not tell wtf was going on in the hand to hand combat scenes. It wasn't quite as bad in this one though, so I'll let it slide.
I found Harvey Dent to be a little less believable after he got fucked in the face with fireballs. It seemed like they were kinda cutting it close and had to delete some footage or something to squeeze it all in. His rage over Rachel's death was so powerful that he refused pain meds for his freakshow face and yet I didn't really get the sense that he missed her. Perhaps it was the fact that he never shed a single tear.
I'm just nitpicky as hell when it comes to movies, so it's easy to pick out the parts I would have done differently. But honestly I found this movie extremely entertaining and I was really pleased with the overall story and feel of the movie. Finally Batman is kinda scary and grim again instead of Joel Shumacher's throwback to the ridiculousness of the 60s TV show. Seriously he should consider other career opportunities at this point. His films were like Batman meets Zoolander. Maybe he should stick to musicals and trendy 80s movies like a good little fag.
I have exactly four people I hang out with on a regular basis. Megan, Matt, Josh, and Chris. And maybe about 12 people I see on a less regular basis who I could call friends, or good friends, or whatever they would like to be called so as not to feel left out. They are mostly detached from anyone in my past, in spite of having known a couple of them for half of my life and therefore technically and ironically they are from my past. My point, if I had one, is that as I have gotten older I require interaction with fewer people. I like being able to kind of pick my new family, slowly weeding out the "bad" ones until I'm down to a core group of die-hard loyal Heatherists. When Daniel Plainview delivers his monologue about seeing the worst in people, I feel it deep inside on a level I thought no one could possibly understand. Obviously someone did because it's in a movie. Now, I don't hate ALL people or I wouldn't be close to anyone, but I definitely relate to the sentiment that "I don't need to look past seeing them to get all I need." It seems like I have posted about this before, deja boo. I'm really a walking contradiction, I also love people and many of the things they create. So anyway, that's where I've been, hanging out with some of the people I don't hate. I might be what they call "bitter." This is what works for me, right now anyway.
It's hard, trying to decide what my defining characteristics are. Figuring out who I am is so complex, I contradict myself at least once a day, I imagine. It's looking at the extremes of my past behavior and finding that middle ground, trying to find what is truest of me, in what situations I have been consistent and how. One thing I hope could be said of me if I died tomorrow is that I was a person of integrity. I do not live by any other person's moral code but my own(which is part of my code in itself) and honesty holds the highest value to me. I think what separates me from a lot of people is that I don't believe that what you do for a living is how you should identify yourself as a human being. If you're being paid to do something, it has nothing to do with who you are. If you are giving emotionally/spiritually as much as you gain fiscally, it's much more likely you closely identify with your chosen profession(and you're probably in social services). It's what you give yourself over to that defines who you are. If you have no passions and a job to pay the bills(or your ego) and not much else, you don't really impress me as being worth the air you're breathing. I guess this kinda ties in with my lack of motivation to do anything that would generate revenue. I don't and never have identified myself by my "accomplishments" or lack thereof because I am overwhelmed with passion and zest for life(even if that means hating it half the time). It's easy to "get a job, you bum" but how often do you hear someone say "get a personality, you waste of space." And then I think about people like Shanna who have no passions, personality, or contributions to society(job) and I cannot fathom how this person has not been struck down by the forces of the universe for being totally pointless.
I guess that was the end of that train of thought. Anyway, I went and saw The Dark Knight earlier today and so here is my review:
I thought it was brilliant. Naysayers be damned, it was the best Batman movie ever. It was to die for.
Not enough backstory on The Joker, you say? That's because he is supposed to be an enigma. There's not really an official origin story for him anyway. I did find myself thinking he could use a little more screen time though, probably just cause I wanted to see more of the role that killed Heath Ledger.
The gravelly quality of Bale's batman voice was slightly over the top, but still he would have to disguise his voice, obviously, so it made sense on that level. I like how the last two movies focus more on Bruce Wayne's self-concept that he is more Batman than Bruce. Bruce is the mask, not Batman. It doesn't matter how shallow or poorly scripted Bruce is, because that reflects the detachment he feels from his "real" persona. He only cares about Bruce Wayne to the extent that he maintains appearances well enough to keep his true self safely hidden.
The Rachel whoever character is the only character in the movie that was yawn-worthy. Not because of the actresses who portrayed her(although Katie Holmes was markedly horrid in Batman Begins), just because her death was sort of glossed over and the way she kissed Bruce and then wrote the final note about marrying Harvey Dent makes you kinda not like her as much. So it's like, just around the time she dies you stop caring about her character's fate because she's too flakey. Passing over her death like it was nothing might have been an attempt on the director's part to show how quickly things happen before anyone has time to adjust(just like they would in real life). And also she's not a real person in teh comics.
I think one of the reasons the movie was so packed full of action the entire two and a half hours is because that's how things really would be if the same level of crime was going on in the real world. What I mean is that the pacing is actually more correct because there wouldn't be a lot of downtime if you were working in law enforcement during a string of domestic terrorist attacks. It would be go go go go until you catch the badguys.
Ooh, and a minor nitpicky thing, I'm not sure I really like the way this director does his fight scenes. I watched Batman Begins last night for a refresher course and noticed that it was very Cloverfield in that you could not tell wtf was going on in the hand to hand combat scenes. It wasn't quite as bad in this one though, so I'll let it slide.
I found Harvey Dent to be a little less believable after he got fucked in the face with fireballs. It seemed like they were kinda cutting it close and had to delete some footage or something to squeeze it all in. His rage over Rachel's death was so powerful that he refused pain meds for his freakshow face and yet I didn't really get the sense that he missed her. Perhaps it was the fact that he never shed a single tear.
I'm just nitpicky as hell when it comes to movies, so it's easy to pick out the parts I would have done differently. But honestly I found this movie extremely entertaining and I was really pleased with the overall story and feel of the movie. Finally Batman is kinda scary and grim again instead of Joel Shumacher's throwback to the ridiculousness of the 60s TV show. Seriously he should consider other career opportunities at this point. His films were like Batman meets Zoolander. Maybe he should stick to musicals and trendy 80s movies like a good little fag.