Cathryn (formerly catslash) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
remindmeofthe) wrote2008-07-18 09:38 pm
remindmeofthe) wrote2008-07-18 09:38 pm
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Guess who DIDN'T get the Watchmen trailer. FAIL. FAIL NICKELODEON CINEMA. FAAAAAAIL. Man, I would've waited to pay matinee prices on Sunday if I'd known they didn't have it.
. . . on the other hand, I will probably be paying matinee prices on Sunday anyway, because the movie was fantastic. So I wasn't really annoyed for too long.
* Can anyone remember the last time they saw a movie they didn't want to end? I thought I sensed an approaching denouement and conclusion once Dent was in the hospital (surely they'll save Two Face for the next movie!) and I was like, "Nooooo! I want moooooore!" AND THEN THERE WAS LIKE AN HOUR MORE. I was so happy.
* There was a line outside the theater when I got there at ten of six for the six-thirty show. I got there JUST in time to duck under the, uh, jutty-out roof bit before it started POURING. Three minutes later, people were arriving soaked to the skin. Then it turned out I was standing in the line for people who already had tickets, so I went inside to the non-line at the ticket counter and bought one. (There was no worry of it being sold out. The Nick NEVER sells out on advanced ticket sales.) Heh.
When I got out (after looking at my watch during the credits and thinking, "Holy crap, it's nine! Wait, that was only two and a half hours?"), it was no longer raining. And this is just as well, because the line for the next show was all the way out to the street. I've never seen a line like that in front of that theater before.
* When the lights went down, people started cheering. Naturally, I joined in. (I never end up at shows where people cheer the movie, so I thought it was pretty cool.) So of course some jerk had to be a spoilsport: "Shut up, you nerds!" I yelled right back, "Cram it, jackass!" Someone had to. And when we were all clapping at the end, there was not a peep from his direction.
* Right, so, the movie itself. It was brilliant. Like, we've all heard that it's brilliant, but to me that just translates as, "This may or may not be brilliant, depending on whether I personally have any interest in Batman, which I don't, but I do in Heath Ledger, so it'll be worth it for that." And then it BLEW MY FUCKING HEAD OFF. I loved it. I loved how the story just kept twisting and faking us out. Even someone like me, who knows very little about the Batman mythos, knows that nothing with the Joker is ever, ever what it seems, so the movie had its work cut out for it big time in trying to surprise us. And somehow, it did it by not trying to hide everything. The Joker would be hiding in plain sight and I'd see it coming, and I never saw it coming. I'll admit that I tend to be distressingly easy to fake out, so maybe my experience wasn't universal and everyone else knew what was going on, but judging from the general response to the movie, I'm thinking not.
* Speaking of which: Heath Ledger, way to be inexplicably hot in a nurse's uniform and wig with the Joker makeup on. What the hell?
* That may be the only thing I have to say about his performance that hasn't already been expressed in every possible manner by every review that's been written, so yeah. I'll spare you all the stuff about how watching him was amazing and heartbreaking all at once. You already know that. You also know how badly we all got robbed when he died. So I'm not going to dwell on that aspect. What I will say is how his performance lives up to and surpasses everything that was said about it as part of the movie hype. He disappeared completely into the character; there was maybe once when I got half-a-glimpse of him under the makeup and mannerisms. There aren't a lot of actors who can do that and it's always a joy to watch one who can.
* So I assume the whole coin-flipping thing with Dent came from the comics, but I just kept thinking, "Anton Chigurh would approve."
* I thought the movie did an excellent job of creating and maintaining the atmosphere of Gotham City, and of allowing the non-fans inside to feel it too. I loved seeing not only the violence of it, but also the behind-the-scenes politics and power struggles. That gave it a depth and realism that made Dent's descent feel inevitable, made the Joker seem in his insanity and love of chaos like precisely the sort of villain Gotham would create (or attract), and made Batman's decision at the end all the more powerful for the faint sense of futility that clung to it. I loved that the ending stayed true to the grimness of the rest of the movie, and that it didn't try to make things look hopeful and upbeat. Gotham City is not a hopeful and upbeat kind of place. That's something I've been vaguely aware of in that geek osmosis sort of way where I pick up all sorts of random little facts about comic books and the like simply because of where my interests lie, but the movie made it real and drove it home.
I think I am going to have to see it again, because I know I only picked up about half of it due to waiting anxiously to see what would happen next. I'm glad it's likely to be hanging around in theaters for a while.
Oh, and I'm gonna go check out the Watchmen trailer now. Sigh.
. . . on the other hand, I will probably be paying matinee prices on Sunday anyway, because the movie was fantastic. So I wasn't really annoyed for too long.
* Can anyone remember the last time they saw a movie they didn't want to end? I thought I sensed an approaching denouement and conclusion once Dent was in the hospital (surely they'll save Two Face for the next movie!) and I was like, "Nooooo! I want moooooore!" AND THEN THERE WAS LIKE AN HOUR MORE. I was so happy.
* There was a line outside the theater when I got there at ten of six for the six-thirty show. I got there JUST in time to duck under the, uh, jutty-out roof bit before it started POURING. Three minutes later, people were arriving soaked to the skin. Then it turned out I was standing in the line for people who already had tickets, so I went inside to the non-line at the ticket counter and bought one. (There was no worry of it being sold out. The Nick NEVER sells out on advanced ticket sales.) Heh.
When I got out (after looking at my watch during the credits and thinking, "Holy crap, it's nine! Wait, that was only two and a half hours?"), it was no longer raining. And this is just as well, because the line for the next show was all the way out to the street. I've never seen a line like that in front of that theater before.
* When the lights went down, people started cheering. Naturally, I joined in. (I never end up at shows where people cheer the movie, so I thought it was pretty cool.) So of course some jerk had to be a spoilsport: "Shut up, you nerds!" I yelled right back, "Cram it, jackass!" Someone had to. And when we were all clapping at the end, there was not a peep from his direction.
* Right, so, the movie itself. It was brilliant. Like, we've all heard that it's brilliant, but to me that just translates as, "This may or may not be brilliant, depending on whether I personally have any interest in Batman, which I don't, but I do in Heath Ledger, so it'll be worth it for that." And then it BLEW MY FUCKING HEAD OFF. I loved it. I loved how the story just kept twisting and faking us out. Even someone like me, who knows very little about the Batman mythos, knows that nothing with the Joker is ever, ever what it seems, so the movie had its work cut out for it big time in trying to surprise us. And somehow, it did it by not trying to hide everything. The Joker would be hiding in plain sight and I'd see it coming, and I never saw it coming. I'll admit that I tend to be distressingly easy to fake out, so maybe my experience wasn't universal and everyone else knew what was going on, but judging from the general response to the movie, I'm thinking not.
* Speaking of which: Heath Ledger, way to be inexplicably hot in a nurse's uniform and wig with the Joker makeup on. What the hell?
* That may be the only thing I have to say about his performance that hasn't already been expressed in every possible manner by every review that's been written, so yeah. I'll spare you all the stuff about how watching him was amazing and heartbreaking all at once. You already know that. You also know how badly we all got robbed when he died. So I'm not going to dwell on that aspect. What I will say is how his performance lives up to and surpasses everything that was said about it as part of the movie hype. He disappeared completely into the character; there was maybe once when I got half-a-glimpse of him under the makeup and mannerisms. There aren't a lot of actors who can do that and it's always a joy to watch one who can.
* So I assume the whole coin-flipping thing with Dent came from the comics, but I just kept thinking, "Anton Chigurh would approve."
* I thought the movie did an excellent job of creating and maintaining the atmosphere of Gotham City, and of allowing the non-fans inside to feel it too. I loved seeing not only the violence of it, but also the behind-the-scenes politics and power struggles. That gave it a depth and realism that made Dent's descent feel inevitable, made the Joker seem in his insanity and love of chaos like precisely the sort of villain Gotham would create (or attract), and made Batman's decision at the end all the more powerful for the faint sense of futility that clung to it. I loved that the ending stayed true to the grimness of the rest of the movie, and that it didn't try to make things look hopeful and upbeat. Gotham City is not a hopeful and upbeat kind of place. That's something I've been vaguely aware of in that geek osmosis sort of way where I pick up all sorts of random little facts about comic books and the like simply because of where my interests lie, but the movie made it real and drove it home.
I think I am going to have to see it again, because I know I only picked up about half of it due to waiting anxiously to see what would happen next. I'm glad it's likely to be hanging around in theaters for a while.
Oh, and I'm gonna go check out the Watchmen trailer now. Sigh.
no subject
I love your reviews of things. Even if I have no idea what you're talking about, I usually read them, anyway.
no subject
Heh, I know. I left the tag for the truly spoilerphobic like myself who wouldn't even want to know my thoughts on Gotham City because that would be in their heads before they saw the movie. I get like that.
Thanks! Nice to know someone's reading my ramblings. *g*
no subject
The thing that impressed me the most was that there have been a lot of Joker incarnations in the comics, and his insanity has been portrayed in a lot of different ways, some more cartoonish than others. And I thought the director/Ledger did a REALLY good job with this version-- I mean, he was very convincingly insane. Like perfect parts skin-crawlingly creepy and funny.
Yeah, the coin and coin-flipping is a very old part of Two-Face's character... dates back to the early '40s, IIRC.
I loved how Gotham had not just the mob, but like EVERY KIND OF MOB. And of course the only one left standing at the end is the Italian mob, 'cause they're the classics.
no subject
SERIOUSLY.
So I assume the whole coin-flipping thing with Dent came from the comics
It's pretty much central to his character. I would say "Watch Batman Forever for a clear illustration of this", but I like you and that film was COCK, so I'd rather you didn't.
I loved seeing not only the violence of it, but also the behind-the-scenes politics and power struggles.
YES. THIS. Which sounds a little stupid coming from such a self-avowed addict to violence, but the machinations are beautiful.
no subject
I assumed as much, yeah. It was really well-used. I just kept thinking of No Country for Old Men, because I do love that movie so.
the machinations are beautiful.
It made it all more real. The idea of a city as violent as Gotham having perfectly stable and bland politics is a ridiculous one and would have completely undermined the portrayal they were going for.
Going to see it again in a couple hours, can't wait!
no subject
Which has been one of the things lacking in previous Batmovies and various other superhero films - a lack of recognition of the layers of power that exist rather than just pasting on cookie-cutter cops and journos.