If you’ve been under a rock and you’re not a member of the Extended Troll or Fairy family then you’ve been at least periferally aware that they made a movie where the Son of the Devil is the hero; and it doesn’t feature one song by Dio OR Slayer. Q’uell Suprise!
Yup, your faithfull blogger has been to see a movie in an actual theatre with real people and a screen and everything. A Chain theatre. Let me go off on a tangent for a moment to fill you with the type of terror I was filled with when I sat in said Chain Theatre. The SCREEN WAS NOT FILLED WITH PICTURES WHEN WE ARRIVED!!!! DUMM DUMM DUMM DUMMM! The screen was about 7/8 filled with the ads and previews. That’s it. AND IT WAS BLURRY!!!! WOOOOOOooooooo! Scary stuff, huh? At Nine Buck a pop it was. I was so worked up about it that if the screen had not become filled with sharp previews a full 10 minutes after we had arrived, I would have become PERTURBED! Please consider this tangent complete, save this one point. The “Dark Knight” line was empty. There are enough nerds in London to justify two comic stores in walking distance from each other downtown, and they are neither of them failing, one had to move to a bigger location recently. In a town that can support two busy comic stores SO CLOSE THAT THEY COULD TOUCH WEINERS, there should have been a line for The Dark Knight. I think that says more about the Theater than the town.
Anyway, the Son of Satan is back with another hit and now he is not tethered by David Hyde Pierce! We get all the Abe Sapien goodness with some heavy Hellboy asskicking; while Selma Blair pouts, looks cute but mixes it up as much as a woman in her condition should. Now at this point you are saying to yourself, why is Kevin getting down on the Crazy? Crazy heroes are the best! I mean, Ambush Bug, the Creeper, CandleJack the list goes on and on. But hold on, I’m not getting down on the Crazy. I love the Crazy and it’s twin the Zany. They are not at issue. I’m just saying that the action is great, the fights are awesome and even the wire-fu is weighty and meaty instead of fairy light and tepid.
Speaking of the Wire Fu. Why does the clearly “European” Elf even know that particular type of wire-fu. I could have accepted Savate or some kind of acrobatic fencing, but Kung-Fuy with a halbred? C’Mon. Not that the fighting was bad, but I half expected him to yell KeeeeyAAAAAA! Go Elf Prince and so on.
As for the Drama, the relationships on screen were great, there’s a great “guy” moment between Hellboy and Abe that has to be seen to be understood and Seth Mcfarlane does himself proud as the character with all the substance of a really good beer fart.
So, Yeah. You should go see HellBoy 2; it’s GREAT. Better than the first one by MILES!
Review: The Dark Knight
Published by NiteMayr on July 21, 2008I’ve had some time to consider “The Dark Knight” and to get over the whole “No More Joker like that” feeling that it left me with when it was over; time to consider the whole put some thought into its merits and failings.
Gotham Itself
Foremost in those Merits is the Art/Photography. The whole film feels like it was filmed on Location, instead of a series of sets. Where Movies like “X-Men 3” felt like the scale of the film should have been epic and was instead tabletop sized; a movie about the conflict between two men was so grand in scale and broadly shot with sweeping backdrops. It was masterful; as I stated earlier Gotham was shot as another character in the film without gaudy makeup and CGI flourish. It was a welcome change. The “Batcave” was also exceptional; instead of the visual cacphany of the traditional Batcave we are treated to a spartan and functional HQ that serves as the home of the Batman. Did anyone else notice how BRIGHT the “Batcave” was? It wasn’t until the Lights went off at the Batcave that things really got down to business; which I imagine was the metaphor that ran through the whole movie.
Alfred
Speaking of unvarnished Characters; Alfred gets a back story in this film that precludes some of his own history. He has served the Wayne Family for how long? He used to be a mercenary/soldier in where? Hmmm. It seems that a former soldier might not take to the life of a butler as readily as the former actor. Can we get a nice firm Public School Education and life of service in place for Alfred and just leave it there? Please? Michael Caine was (as ever) a fine character actor; he has settled into the “wise older guy/father figure” role very well. The next man to fill the role after Mr. Caine will have trouble shaking the dignified and meaty role that Michael Caine has carved from Alfred. Not Camp. not “Fussy School Marm”, just a Man’s Man who happens to be a butler.
Rachel Dawes
Maggie Gyllenhall; gah. I think I just don’t like her as an actor. Sure, she is more of a character than Katie Holmes carried in “Batman Begins” but only because she pouts and acts more upset with Bruce Wayne than in the former. I jsut don’t buy her as a lawyer, she seems far to passive to be a real lawyer, especially as an Assistant DA. Speaking of that; why isn’t Rachel the DA? She has Bruce Wayne backing her for gosh’s sake. That is kind of emblematic of the uneven writing that makes Rachel so poor; she motivates two big characters but isn’t self-motivating. She just reacts and her biggest moment comes. <spoiler>post-mortem</spoiler> which kind of sucks for the actress. She scores her points by looking alternatively annoyed, scared or sad.
Harvey Dent/Two-Face
Aaron Eckhart; Harvey Dent. What can be said about the blonde-haird blue-eyed Harvey Dent that wasn’t repeated over and over again in the press about him all over Gotham? Gotham’s white knight! The guys on the force had another name for him: “Two Face”. The only thing is that they don’t establish WHY they called him Two Face; only that he was called it behind his back. If I remember correctly; in some far-off corner of my mind there was a portrayal of Harvey that showed him being bad-ass in private; thus showing the schism in his personality up front. Aaron tries to demonstrate this schism on screen, in a hoarse scream that appears as if by magic at points; but I don’t think his performance was strong enough. It was good; but not great.
The Joker / The Batman
I give Christian Bale and Heath Ledger equal billing here. They are as much the same character as the source material allows. In the comics; other heroes will often decry that Batman will always go over the edge and too far when solving the world’s problems. The opposite is true; of course, The Batman doesn’t ever go too far; he is always prepared and has planned this out. The same is true for the Joker; who WANTS to be caught and stopped by The Batman. The Batman and The Joker occupy the same space; with both seeking to make the world see things and do things their way. The Joker might be doing it for the Lulz, but it’s still the same psychology that drives them. “The Dark Knight” does a great deal to illustrate that neither the Joker nor The Batman gamble and both seem to have all the angles covered. The conflict that ensues is epic; if not exhausting. The yawning physical gulf between the two characters (demonstrated through sweeping helicopter shots showing each character’s approach to looking over the city) is also lost when you can see how close the two man are to each other. They are shadowy men with pasts that are known only to their intimates. It seems that the only thing that keeps The Batman from being The Joker are those around him. All of this is beautifully portrayed by both actors; with Bale continuing to play his “Patrick Bateman” Bruce Wayne to great effect. Heath Ledger pulls in a performance of the Joker that reaches new highs that I don’t imagine would be easily eclipsed.