NYT review was pretty glowing
― the alternate vision continues his vision quest! (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 19 July 2012 20:21 (twelve years ago) link
I liked the Salon review
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 19 July 2012 20:22 (twelve years ago) link
Harry Knowles is disappointed.
This makes me want to pre-emptively like this movie.
― LISTEN TO THIS BRAD (Nicole), Thursday, 19 July 2012 20:51 (twelve years ago) link
i stopped myself when i got to the big spoiler pause (sigh, normally i don't care but i'd kinda like the end to be a surprise) but the stuff he mentioned, like batman retiring because someone he loved died, seemed kinda weak sans context.
― da croupier, Thursday, 19 July 2012 20:55 (twelve years ago) link
it just seemed a really nerdy and macho rant.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Thursday, 19 July 2012 21:10 (twelve years ago) link
I hope this is super sacrilegious. I'm sick to death of "faithful" comic adaptations.
― Simon H., Thursday, 19 July 2012 21:11 (twelve years ago) link
honestly i don't really care if the film adds up so long as it's got forward motion. i just don't want to have a chance to ponder how it could have been better while it's on screen.
― da croupier, Thursday, 19 July 2012 21:12 (twelve years ago) link
so no hollered, gravelly bat-monologues, nolan!
― da croupier, Thursday, 19 July 2012 21:13 (twelve years ago) link
i just want to feel a well of emotion as batman sheds a tear then emerges triumphant and more gravelly voiced than ever, plus explosions.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Thursday, 19 July 2012 22:01 (twelve years ago) link
worried we're more in for "plus expositions"
― da croupier, Thursday, 19 July 2012 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
I hope this is super sacrilegious. I'm sick to death of "faithful" comic adaptations.― Simon H., Thursday, 19 July 2012 22:11 (1 hour ago) Bookmark
― Simon H., Thursday, 19 July 2012 22:11 (1 hour ago) Bookmark
I imagine it'll be as "faithful" as the other Nolan movies. Not sure what else you're expecting
― Number None, Thursday, 19 July 2012 22:29 (twelve years ago) link
I've already seen a couple of butthurt fanboy takes. I find that encouraging.
― Simon H., Thursday, 19 July 2012 22:39 (twelve years ago) link
Bob Mondello had a clever bit in his (glowing) review today on NPR. He was talking about the score, which was playing behind him. The music volume kept going up and up until he was having to shout his review over it.
― Neil Jung (WmC), Thursday, 19 July 2012 23:31 (twelve years ago) link
Watched the first two flicks today as a refresher course; TDK is about 1000x better than BB. It's not even close.
― Simon H., Thursday, 19 July 2012 23:39 (twelve years ago) link
i still wish they'd gone with Philip Seymour Hoffman as Penguin. i can't get over how amazing that sounded.
― piscesx, Thursday, 19 July 2012 23:40 (twelve years ago) link
definitely a better villain than Bane
― the alternate vision continues his vision quest! (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 19 July 2012 23:41 (twelve years ago) link
and the whole high society/corrupt rich freak angle...
sweet tidbit about Batman Returns from IMDB
The production wanted to use King Penguins but the only tame ones in captivity were at a bird sanctuary in the Cotswolds deep in the English countryside. So the birds were flown over to the States in the refrigerated hold of a plane, they were given their own refrigerated trailer, their own swimming pool with half a ton of fresh ice every day, and had fresh fish delivered daily straight from the docks. Even though the temperature outside frequently topped 100 degrees, the entire set was refrigerated down to 35 degrees. The birds also had a round-the-clock bodyguard. Clearly the birds enjoyed the experience as, following their stint in Hollywood, most of them had mated and produced eggs - the sure sign of a contented penguin.
:)
― piscesx, Thursday, 19 July 2012 23:57 (twelve years ago) link
― Simon H., Thursday, July 19, 2012 2:11 PM (2 hours ago)
yes, yes, a thousand times yes. that was the most annoying and telling thing about that dumbass knowles rant: i do not give one hairy fuck whether or not this movie satisfies your sense of "what batman is really like". still plan to hate it.
― contenderizer, Friday, 20 July 2012 00:02 (twelve years ago) link
I still prefer BB to TDK so ner. Two-Face stuff doesn't work, nor the Joker's boat thing.
― Alba, Friday, 20 July 2012 00:34 (twelve years ago) link
But now I'm just kind of ready for TDKR being even more grandiose and batshit and not really caring if it doesn't hang together like BB. Bring it on. IMAX ticket booked for Monday morning.
― Alba, Friday, 20 July 2012 00:37 (twelve years ago) link
the villains in BB were boring
― Matt Armstrong, Friday, 20 July 2012 01:58 (twelve years ago) link
the villain in TDK is so good that he has his own little whiney soundtrack noise to remind you one of his scenes is coming up
― Matt Armstrong, Friday, 20 July 2012 01:59 (twelve years ago) link
Alba OTM about BB > TDK. boat stuff, 2 face stuff, lots of other stuff.. oyy it goes on forever. but hey the amazing bits are still amazing.
― piscesx, Friday, 20 July 2012 04:16 (twelve years ago) link
TDK has a brilliant hour which is probably better than any part of BB, but BB as a whole is a much better film.
― Legendary General Cypher Raige (Gukbe), Friday, 20 July 2012 04:38 (twelve years ago) link
likely not seeing TDKR until DVD but I'm stoked for that day to get here.
i am in a darkened theatre watching the previews
start the show!!!
― the late great, Friday, 20 July 2012 07:06 (twelve years ago) link
Well that was exhausting.
― mythical mickey rourke jacket (latebloomer), Friday, 20 July 2012 07:22 (twelve years ago) link
My brief take on Batman Gets Up: too long, clunky as fuck, cute ending. No more superhero movies for me.
― mythical mickey rourke jacket (latebloomer), Friday, 20 July 2012 07:59 (twelve years ago) link
It was ok.
http://news.sky.com/story/962756/reports-10-shot-dead-at-batman-film-premiere
― Legendary General Cypher Raige (Gukbe), Friday, 20 July 2012 08:22 (twelve years ago) link
Uh-oh, *someone* only rated it a 7.
― Alba, Friday, 20 July 2012 08:46 (twelve years ago) link
Sorry, that's not funny.
Uh, wow, Holy shit at that.
As for the movie itself, kind of a bummer. Anne Hathaway was great, plot was several times more convoluted than necessary; a streamlined screenplay w/ more time spent with the, y'know, characters would have helped immensely. Hints of great atmosphere from time to time. Overall not a patch on TDK, for sure.
― Simon H., Friday, 20 July 2012 09:08 (twelve years ago) link
That's awful.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 20 July 2012 09:09 (twelve years ago) link
But yeah, aside from the awfulness of this shooting, I'm seein this tonight and super-psyched. Have read several reviews (including spoilers, which, if you've got any knowledge of the Batman universe, are pretty predictable and logical) and they all point towards me loving it.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 20 July 2012 09:14 (twelve years ago) link
plot was several times more convoluted than necessary; a streamlined screenplay w/ more time spent with the, y'know, characters would have helped immensely.
This pretty much guarantees that I'm going to love it.
Batman Begins is just one of the most superfluous movies I've ever seen. If they felt the need to reference it in The Dark Knight (and they didn't), they could have just put up a title card reading "Bruce Wayne is Batman. You know, Batman".
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 20 July 2012 10:31 (twelve years ago) link
but they're referencing it a lot in this one apparently
― Number None, Friday, 20 July 2012 10:33 (twelve years ago) link
Well that's not good news, as I remember fuck-all about it. To Wikipedia, I suppose.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 20 July 2012 10:34 (twelve years ago) link
Opening / origin / reboot (superhero) movies are seldom, in my experience, as good as first sequels; too much context and exposition and scene-setting, not enough actual plot and drama and character. Third movies tend to then over-egg the pudding as a rule. The Raimi Spiderman movies being the QED of this.
I gather bits of this reference BB, in that Bane is another League of Shadows effort to destroy Gotham, but I'm fine with that. Rewatched both BB and TDK over the last week and they both stood up; TDK is better, for me, because it does away with the aforementioned context and exposition and scene-setting.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 20 July 2012 11:08 (twelve years ago) link
this movie was nbd
― the late great, Friday, 20 July 2012 16:38 (twelve years ago) link
i think at this point we're all familiar w nolan's tricks
― the late great, Friday, 20 July 2012 16:39 (twelve years ago) link
so i saw this w/ some friends who got in a rowdy debate about whether it was good or not
- tom hardy's voice and accent. what, like liam neeson's accent was so amazing? does it not make sense that a thug would have a classy voice or is it supposed to be a thought-provoking contrast?
- batman not being a superhero, is that what we really want to see in a batman movie? looking at society instead of just having an action romp?
- action set pieces were dark and confusing with too many fast cuts, too many, not enough, too short or too long, etc.
- why are the female characters in this movie so shallow, compared to the ones in the previous movies? *actual LOLs at this one*
- michael caine and morgan freeman are underutilized in their roles as cranky old british wisdom and patient humble old black wisdom (assume they mean by nolan in this movie and not by hollywood in the last 25 years)
- why is every piece of the dialogue connected to a portentous IMAX shot and a plot event involving inanimate objects and/or vignettes of stock footage city people doing stock city living things, except injected with MEANING
- why so much frosted glass, heavy old corroded metal, concrete, etc
all of which i replied to w/ FFS this is a nolan movie (featuring the usual types of richly detailed / super austere sets that he demolishes rube goldberg-style) and all of the portentous *meaning* it implies
also have you guys ever seen a movie that came out before you were born, and if so didn't you guys graduate college (or high school, as it were) ten years ago?
and didn't you know that this is about as good a version of "dark knight returns" as we can hope for from hollywood and that this bane is a hell of a lot of better than bane from the comics which is pretty damn rare for a screen hero!
i don't know, i don't get movie-going as a hobby. if i went out to eat at a restaurant every friday and it sucked 2/3 of the time i would probably just stop going and watch old movies on netflix and hulu (actually what i do, only see movies in theaters 3-5 times a year) instead of making a big hobby out of going and then complaining about it (people who yelp are scumbags)
i went to see it again this morning in IMAX but it was a madhouse zoo full of elementary school kids and i didn't want to deal with that
― the late great, Friday, 20 July 2012 19:14 (twelve years ago) link
so basically no surprises, except this doozy: anne hathaway (who i don't like) not only doesn't suck but she actually steals the show!
she's no michelle pfeiffer ... but who is?
previews were a big letdown ... "neighborhood watch" looks pretty good, sad to see "total recall" looks more "i, robot" / "minority report" than "fifth element"
― the late great, Friday, 20 July 2012 19:18 (twelve years ago) link
Yep, and also I hope JG-L sends his agent a very nice gift basket this Christmas.
Did you get the trailer for Affleck's next movie?
― Marco YOLO (Phil D.), Friday, 20 July 2012 19:22 (twelve years ago) link
oh yes! that looks stellar! i have no joke *deep respect* for clooney as a human being and actor and i'm excited to see him move into production
that said i was shifted around really uncomfortably during that thing, i have bad memories of the hostage crisis
― the late great, Friday, 20 July 2012 19:24 (twelve years ago) link
who is jg-l?
― the late great, Friday, 20 July 2012 19:25 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, my family was stationed overseas in 1979 and my dad was in a unit that was likely to be deployed if shit got real. Until the trailer made clear what the movie was going to be, I was like, "Uh . . . this might be kind of a politically irresponsible movie right now?" But it looks cool!
Joseph Gordon-Leavitt.
― Marco YOLO (Phil D.), Friday, 20 July 2012 19:26 (twelve years ago) link
xp
oh right, the cop. he was *awesome*
i've only seen him in inception but i'll be keeping an eye out for him in the future
i wish they'd used gordon more, but i feel like we have a pretty good read on his character anyway
i think this movie suffers mainly in comparison to the last two, no way anybody could really live up to that joker and the action scenes are just *okay* veering into *stupid* (i.e. flying batmobile dogfights straight out transformers movie)
there's no "mega moments" in this movie. the airplane hijacking was pretty flat compared to the bank robbery in tdk, the climbing-out-of-pit scene was a poor substitute for the part where they are gordon has to drive the joker cross-town w/ batman running interference. also there was no "trippy" part, which i think nolan is good at (thinking like inception dream sequences and/or the ninjitsu-on-shrooms bits from the first one)
― the late great, Friday, 20 July 2012 19:39 (twelve years ago) link