Like a bat outta hell I'll be gone when the morning comes

[cyrano]

Trailers. WIlly Wonka. Has potential. Johnny v. creepy but reminds me too much of Jim Carrey so far. Sky High, new Disney superhero flick. Looks actually funny. Also, good to see Kurt Russel working for the Mouse again. Stealth. Oh hey, they finally made a sequel to Top Gun. No, wait. there's an evil plane that wants to kill them all. That might be an imrpovement on the original. God, this looks about as bad as I'd expect it to be. The New World. Oh look. Indigenous people living in harmony with the environment. I wonder if white people are going to spoil it all. Oh hey, white people. Hunh. Okay, looks about as bad as I'd expect it to be. Wow. Feature presentation. No commercials. Weird. Plus no previews that made me want to spork my eyeballs out of their sockets.
Oh cool. I like the way the bats in the opening sequence cluster to form a suggestions of the Batman symbol on the screen. Just a hint, nothing clubbing you over the head.
Okay, I'm pretty sure Liam Neeson just told Christian Bale that Ras Al Ghul can offer him a bath. Although from the reaction, I'm betting he actually said 'path'. Although he could use a bath more.
Oh damn. Bruce Wayne is so bad, they threw him out of prison for being a disruptive influence.
Hee. They still have the gothic arches that made me so amused in the first movie. Even if they're only on the El.
Okay, Christian Bale is essentially just a taller Tom Cruise, isn't he?
You what? Oh good, Chill turned state's evidence and is going to roll over on Falcone. Good news, Bruce, you moron. You're not going to have to kill him, since he's not going to last five minutes after they sign his parole papers; the ink's not even going to be dry before they--oh good, the writers thought that would be the case too. I'm so glad they didn't try to let that fly.
Oh hey. The little bat ninja shuriken look like the Wayne Enterprise 'W' except stretched horizontally instead of vertically. That's cool.
I love the way the train scene here mirrors the one from earlier, thirty years ago. "Daddy, did you build this train?" "Yes, son, it's an example of the shining new city we're building but when you're grown up it'll look like shit and nobody will ride it except muggers and Assistant DAs waiting to get mugged."
Holy crap, the Scarecrow. And he's actually kind of cool. No, he's really cool.
So's that bat attractor thingie in his boot. Cool!
Um. Arbitrary car chase, though? Not so cool. Okay, pretty lame actually. Good god, does this thing never end? Okay, there is no real plot reason for this car chase except "Dear Bruce, I couldn't make the antidote in time for you so I brought it to the batcave kthxby"
Dammit, if both the hero and the villain have voice distorting thingies and I'm having trouble understanding the dialogue already then that doesn't help any.
Okay, the idea of a microwave thingie designed to vaporize water for desert combat is kind of cool. But. Um. Should you be standing in front of it like that, when the human body is like 90% water? Dude? Microwaves don't think skin is a significant barrier, you're going to... oh. I guess it doesn't work that way.
Wow. Zimmer *and* Newton Howard did the score for this one. I wonder if it was collaborative or complemetary.

PS Tersa--IMDB lists over 100 scoring credits for JNH. Dunno how many of them are just him, but lots of Shyamalan.

And then outside in the parking lot, Tersa found a license frame that said 'My grandchildren are cutter than yours'. Not only did the person who made it have no idea how to spell, but the person who bought it didn't either. Unless, of course, this poor dear sweet woman's grandchildren are either butterfly knife wielding gangbangers or else looking for a way to express their internal pain externally.



So all in all, I say it's the best of the modern Batman films. But I wasn't a big fan of the earlier ones, even Burton, so that may be damning with faint praise. I enjoyed it a lot. The writing was really good--the dialogue felt comfortable and there were lots of good 'bits'. The actors were good, even Katie Holmes who should have been acted off the screen by the talent collected here wasn't bad. Four wags out of five, says Coyote Review Service.

And tonight there was a lovely party at Sunyata's where I got to hang out and play games and talk and meet her boys. She's a charming hostess and nice to hug.

And also, Happy Birthday Toby McGuire. And god damn it all to hell, they're making Garfield 2. Did enough people not suffer with just one?

Comments

[tersa.livejournal.com]

And god damn it all to hell, they're making Garfield 2. Did enough people not suffer with just one?

Which is just to show that for all Hollywood is great for putting out stuff like "Lost", it's almost like it has to strike a great balance in the universe. :P

Ugh.

[elo-sf.livejournal.com]

In fairness, I never NORMALLY would have seen the Garfield movie, but I did watch it on a plane and you know what?

It was only marginally worse from the other standard crap they put out there.

[carabosse.livejournal.com]

[defensive] Christian Bale is NOT a taller Tom Cruise! [/defensive] I've seen him in more good movies, and he does a great job of inhabiting a character. Even if I did think that Bruce Wayne had a bit too much in common with Patrick Bateman...

[bekscilla.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one who wondered why the water in their bodies didn't just vaporize, as well.