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In my last post, I mentioned that I'm a fan of Christopher Nolan. And I am. But I am not as big a fan of this film as I would hope to be. I think I'd expected to like it more on viewing it again, but this was not to be.
Sigh.
I'm sure it would strike me as a good film if I felt I was keeping up with what was happening. But, for most of the time, I feel like I'm just getting the gist of things and resignedly going along with it. Nodding along to a complex discussion in another language where I have only high school conversational abilities, latching on to words I recognise and extrapolating the meaning of the sentences around them. Important exposition must be somewhere on the cutting room floor, because events dash along in a disjointed fashion and I have to compose connecting material myself to make sense of the story as best I can in my own head. The characters have been tossed haphazardly in to the story and are scrambling toward the conclusion.
Added to that, after such an expressive foil in the Joker, I have trouble Bane. The mask prevents expression, the speech is muffled (which surely could have been cleaned up in the making of the film?) and he wound up seeming purely like a life size action figure to me. And that's ludicrous. A life size action figure. So he's just not terribly menacing.
I really really want to like this film. And I keep thinking "Maybe I just need to watch it one more time..." But it's so hellbent on cramming in the necessary story elements that the story actually winds up suffering for me.
Reflecting on it, I'm surprised to be complaining about that, because I hate films that blatantly, insultingly, spell out all the necessary plot points and give the audience no credit for their intelligence. So that contributes to my trouble with this film, because I keep thinking that perhaps there's something I'M missing, that will make the whole thing magically come together. Reassuringly though, I'm told that I'm not the only one with this reaction to it.
Final Thought: Oh how I wish that Anne Hathaway had more opportunity to play with the Catwoman character...
Up Next: Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2005)
I have no idea how many times I've seen this film. As a teenager, I pretty much watched it every weekend. I listened to the soundtrack constantly. I had something of an obsession with Brandon Lee. I would wake up early on Saturday, sneak downstairs, plug headphones in to the VCR, and press play. I don't even think I owned it - I think I hired it from my local video store. Every week. I should have just bought it, but I guess it must have been hard for me to find.
It's been a little while since I've seen it. As soon as I pressed play, everything was so familiar. At first glance, it's not exactly a film you would call comforting, but it comforts me. Surprisingly for me, there were moments in this film that I hadn't noticed before. Or I haven't watched it in that long that I'd forgotten about them. Small moments, glances, gestures. And I realised that the characters I dislike, I dislike with such passion it's as though they've hurt me personally.
This film was something of a phenomenon when I was a teenager, to the point of saturation and over-hype. There's a reason for it though. It's a beautiful, melancholic film. Lee is amazing in this movie. Subtle, furious and burning. It shows that he was truly something special as a performer. And T-Bird's dying monologue, the sparks falling in to the water, the soprano vocal and the burning crow is a stunningly gorgeous piece of cinema. Great acting moment for David Patrick Kelly.
Big call, but I might possibly call this my favourite film.
Final Thought: In looking up trivia about this movie, I just discovered that they're planning to film a remake. I love this film so much that I can't help but take that as a personal affront. How dare they.
Up Next: The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
Captain America: The First Avenger is fine. It's not fantastic, it's not awful, it's fine.
Chris Evans is actually perfect for the role, from what I can tell (not having read the comics). I would love to see him pushed in more challenging roles than those he's done so far. And Hugo Weaving is
surprisingly restrained playing such a ridiculous character, which is
good I guess, because it would be easy to take it too far.
There seems to be an element missing to connect the montages and action sequences to the emotion of the story. So it's a bit disjointed to me. I actually prefer the origin part of the tale rather than once the action kicks in to gear, which is not the norm for this type of film.
Final Thought: Skinny, short Chris Evans? CGI is freaky.
Up Next: Casablanca (1942)
Not to be too much of a fangirl about it, but Joss Whedon's work is pretty great. I remember watching the original Buffy movie any time I had a sleepover with my friends as a teenager. Then when I heard that there was going to be a TV show, years later, I counted down the minutes until the first episode. I faithfully watched and recorded every show (I still have the collection of VHS) and, as it was moved to later and later timeslots, I enlisted my father to carry on the taping for me (though once I got a TV of my own, I'd sneakily watch it anyway in the middle of the night).
This loyalty carried on to Angel when it started. Then Firefly came, and I was skeptical, plus it screened at 1am on a school night in Australia, so I only got around to seeing that on DVD before going to see Serenity, and I wished I'd seen it sooner. Dollhouse took a few episodes to convince me, but convince me it did. And don't get me started on The Cabin In The Woods... I'll talk about that when I get to it in this project (which I am planning to time precisely to coincide with the DVD release so I can include it).
Anyone who is a fan of Joss Whedon has absolute trust in any project he takes on, occasionally blindly so. But in our defense, we're yet to be given a reason why we shouldn't.
Thankfully, The Avengers continued his trend of quality products.
It's oh so fun.
There was a lot of pressure, poor guy, because they've been setting up for this film for a long time, what with all the individual hero movies to introduce us to the characters.
I don't really feel qualified enough to comment much on the characters themselves, not having read the comic books. But I will say two things:
The last two incarnations of the Hulk have been so tortured - it's really nice to see the character romp around and have (violent) fun. I'm not an authority on the Hulk, but for me think that's why it works.
And, as an Aussie, I love how good Chris Hemsworth is as Thor.
Final Thought: Stan Lee's cameos just get better and better.
Up Next: Babe (1995)
