oops - Batman review!
Jun. 27th, 2005 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseI forgot to talk about Batman!!! I saw it yesterday with Kari and Dora, and it was really very good. I didn't feel the same amount of relief that most people did, I think, because I've honestly only seen bits and pieces of any of the previous movies, but it was very fun nonetheless.
First off, let me say how much I love Liam Neeson. How much? SOOOOOOO MUCH!!!! I worship the man - always have, always will, can't stop - and seeing him play such a kickass character was just wonderful. He's twisted, he rules the screen whenever he's on it, he beats the living hell out of Christian Bale, and he does it all with his patented soulful puppy eyes that make me want to hug him and try to make him feel better. So yeah.
Sadly, the fact that his part was totally awesome meant that they really robbed poor Ken Watanabe. He had something like 1.5 lines in English, and not all that many more all told, which really felt like a crime. The poor man deserves a better part. Ah well.
Gary Oldman was adorable. Just so cute, and so normal, and so much a guy with this tired, desperate "I want do good things!!!" kind of attitude. I wanted to hug him, too. I also wanted to hug Morgan Freeman (so adorable!!!) and Michael Caine (also so adorable!!!) Yes, this huge action flick, and I'm concentrating on how much I love the supporting cast and want to snuggle them. *Shrugs* What can I say, I love good actors.
Speaking of which, Cillian Whatshisname, the one who played Dr Crane, was really very good. He's one of those men who really ought to be pretty, but his features combine in such a way that he goes out the other end of pretty into "umm... there's something undefinably wrong with your face." Which I do not mean as an insult in the slightest - unlike most Hollywood-pretty men, he managed to attract my attention long enough that I not only recognized him (turned out he was in "Girl with a Pearl Earring"), but half-remembered his name and his character's name after looking him up. So yay. He did a lovely job, and ohmigod the Scarecrow was creepy. So very creepy. Wheeeee.
You've noticed, by now, the people whose names are missing from my little gush-fest.
When I talk about Hollywood-pretty men who I can't be arsed to remember five minutes later, Christian Bale falls into that category. He did well, I liked most of what he did as an actor in this movie, and I was at least pleased that they did not focus five minutes of attention on his ass, as I remember them doing with the last Batman movie, starring George Clooney. Because I'm sorry - no interest in that man's ass. Something about his face... eh. In theory, Batman is the kind of hero I can usually really get into, but I've never actually seen a movie Batman who I found all that interesting. I like the idea, I just never seem to care for the casting. Of all previous choices, Bale seemed best, but he still was kind of "meh," in my opinion. No real reason, I just thought he paled in comparison to his supporting cast.
As usual with hero movies, I really could not have cared less for the female lead. "Ooo, I'm the romantic interest! Let me go over here and do something somewhat heroic so that people won't bitch that I'm a weak woman. And then I'll bitch at the lead to show that I'm not a doormat. Okay, now that I've done that, it's time to be poisoned by stupidly following the creepy guy into his creepy-ass dungeon under his creepy-fucking-ass mental hospital, and then staring at everything horrible and bad and not reacting at all until he sprays me with aeresol hallucinogenic poison!"
I'm sorry, that was probably needlessly unkind, but I just could not bring myself to like this woman. Not sure why, probably just that she's not my type of female character, but I really hated her.
The pacing of the movie had some issues (reeeeeeeeeallly unnecessarily long car-chase, in which the production crew seemed to have decided they needed to try every possible way to blow up a car and show off the surprisingly ugly Bat-mobile from every concievable angle, and later the rather annoying and tiresome scene between Bruce and whatshername after everything was done. Of course, if you didn't dislike Holmes' acting and character, that scene probably wasn't that bad. And compared to the battle scenes between them at the beginning of the movie, the fight between Neeson and Bale at the end seemed poorly executed, which was really sad. But have I mentioned lately how much I love sword battles? It deserves saying again. Yay for swords.
And I really wish I could remember some of those lines that I was telling myself "I've gotta remember that!" about.
First off, let me say how much I love Liam Neeson. How much? SOOOOOOO MUCH!!!! I worship the man - always have, always will, can't stop - and seeing him play such a kickass character was just wonderful. He's twisted, he rules the screen whenever he's on it, he beats the living hell out of Christian Bale, and he does it all with his patented soulful puppy eyes that make me want to hug him and try to make him feel better. So yeah.
Sadly, the fact that his part was totally awesome meant that they really robbed poor Ken Watanabe. He had something like 1.5 lines in English, and not all that many more all told, which really felt like a crime. The poor man deserves a better part. Ah well.
Gary Oldman was adorable. Just so cute, and so normal, and so much a guy with this tired, desperate "I want do good things!!!" kind of attitude. I wanted to hug him, too. I also wanted to hug Morgan Freeman (so adorable!!!) and Michael Caine (also so adorable!!!) Yes, this huge action flick, and I'm concentrating on how much I love the supporting cast and want to snuggle them. *Shrugs* What can I say, I love good actors.
Speaking of which, Cillian Whatshisname, the one who played Dr Crane, was really very good. He's one of those men who really ought to be pretty, but his features combine in such a way that he goes out the other end of pretty into "umm... there's something undefinably wrong with your face." Which I do not mean as an insult in the slightest - unlike most Hollywood-pretty men, he managed to attract my attention long enough that I not only recognized him (turned out he was in "Girl with a Pearl Earring"), but half-remembered his name and his character's name after looking him up. So yay. He did a lovely job, and ohmigod the Scarecrow was creepy. So very creepy. Wheeeee.
You've noticed, by now, the people whose names are missing from my little gush-fest.
When I talk about Hollywood-pretty men who I can't be arsed to remember five minutes later, Christian Bale falls into that category. He did well, I liked most of what he did as an actor in this movie, and I was at least pleased that they did not focus five minutes of attention on his ass, as I remember them doing with the last Batman movie, starring George Clooney. Because I'm sorry - no interest in that man's ass. Something about his face... eh. In theory, Batman is the kind of hero I can usually really get into, but I've never actually seen a movie Batman who I found all that interesting. I like the idea, I just never seem to care for the casting. Of all previous choices, Bale seemed best, but he still was kind of "meh," in my opinion. No real reason, I just thought he paled in comparison to his supporting cast.
As usual with hero movies, I really could not have cared less for the female lead. "Ooo, I'm the romantic interest! Let me go over here and do something somewhat heroic so that people won't bitch that I'm a weak woman. And then I'll bitch at the lead to show that I'm not a doormat. Okay, now that I've done that, it's time to be poisoned by stupidly following the creepy guy into his creepy-ass dungeon under his creepy-fucking-ass mental hospital, and then staring at everything horrible and bad and not reacting at all until he sprays me with aeresol hallucinogenic poison!"
I'm sorry, that was probably needlessly unkind, but I just could not bring myself to like this woman. Not sure why, probably just that she's not my type of female character, but I really hated her.
The pacing of the movie had some issues (reeeeeeeeeallly unnecessarily long car-chase, in which the production crew seemed to have decided they needed to try every possible way to blow up a car and show off the surprisingly ugly Bat-mobile from every concievable angle, and later the rather annoying and tiresome scene between Bruce and whatshername after everything was done. Of course, if you didn't dislike Holmes' acting and character, that scene probably wasn't that bad. And compared to the battle scenes between them at the beginning of the movie, the fight between Neeson and Bale at the end seemed poorly executed, which was really sad. But have I mentioned lately how much I love sword battles? It deserves saying again. Yay for swords.
And I really wish I could remember some of those lines that I was telling myself "I've gotta remember that!" about.
