movies

The Dark Knight Rises

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I really loved The Dark Knight Rises. One thing you may not know about me is that my icon up there ^ is true, I really do want everything I’ve ever seen in the movies. Bane and the Joker and R’as Al Ghul? Bring those fuckers on! Watching the last of a movie series I’d loved since my teens, I really did want everything it was showing, even the terrible things.

Then I got back home. And a terrible thing actually had happened. And there was, unfortunately, not a Batman in sight. But I don’t want to think about that, not really, I think I’d rather talk about the movie. For now.

  • It passes the Bechdel test! Not exactly with flying colours- it just scrapes past, with a short conversation between Selina and her friend. (Girlfriend?) But it’s more than any of the other Nolan films have done.
  • YES JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT IS ROBIN. It’s not revealed till the end that his character’s first name is Robin, but it is, and…yeah. If they’d revealed that at the beginning they could have almost gotten away with calling this film Batman and Robin.
  • The misdirection with the child who escaped the prison and the true progeny of R’as Al Ghul was really well done. I suspected Miranda Tate wasn’t all she seemed, but then towards the end I began to wonder…but no, I was right. I liked her, I thought she was a pretty good villain. Well, and I liked the bit where the film reveals that the child who escaped (who did something even Batman couldn’t do at first) was a girl. As a feminist I kinda dug that. Especially since there’s not really much female representation in these movies.
  • Liam Neeson is back for a cameo! But R’as is still dead, it’s all flashbacks and dream sequences. Oh! Oh! And the Scarecrow is back for a cameo too. I geniunely was surprised to see him there.
  • Burn Gorman! Owen from Torchwood! Playing a nasty villain who meets an icy death. (not…not him…never mind.)
  • A part of me wishes they hadn’t called it The Dark Knight Rises- it’s a really clunky title considering it comes right after The Dark Knight. I’d have gone for Gotham City. Or heck, even Gotham Rises. (Actually, that’s not bad.)
  • Anne Hathaway was perfectly fine as Catwoman, but she doesn’t even approach the depth and sheer awesomeness of Michelle Pfeiffier’s take on the character, not for me. Although…if there was to be a spin-off movie…I’d definitely want her back.
  • Between the length of this and the length of The Dark Knight, someone really needs to take Christopher Nolan aside and explain how bladders work. Loads of stuff could concievably have been left on the cutting-room floor- the whole opening sequence with Bane kidnapping the nuclear physicist from the aeroplane could probably have been covered in one line of dialogue. (“Holy kidnapping of nuclear physicists, Batman!”)
  • Oh, back to Robin for a sec: when he was talking to Bruce and was all ‘we’ve met before’, I was SO SURE he was going to be that little kid from the first Batman movie, grown up, remember him? But he wasn’t. Boo.
  • The fallout from The Dark Knight happened, and was done really well. Poor Gordon, as soon as Bane learned the truth about Harvey I knew he was in for a kicking. And although I was sad for him that his wife left him, took the kids and moved out of Gotham, I bet Gordon himself ended up relieved that happened- they weren’t there when the shit hit the fan.
  • Also, one little bit I loved- Robin (he had another name throughout the movie, Blake, I think – which was the last name of one of the Robins, so I really should have guessed) was disgusted with Gordon for concealing the truth about Harvey and letting Gotham live under false hope. But then he does it himself, with the children at the end, telling them the bus will shield them from the bomb. And you can tell he’s just realised, what even false hope can do- I just thought that was really well done.
  • Hooray, Fox managed not to die! There were times I feared for him. Also, he wore a bow tie. Bow ties are cool.
  • Bane broke Batman’s back! Oh, you have no idea how much I’ve wanted to see that on screen, ever since they cast Bane- but I didn’t expect it to happen.
  • ALFRED ALFRED omg ALFRED. He wasn’t in it much, but as soon as he returned, I knew how the film would end- and I’m so glad I was right. And I don’t think he walked away, I think he went right up to Bruce and hugged the crap out of him.
  • Kudos to the guy (or girl?) in my theatre who stayed till after the credits and made a little bat-symbol in front of the projector with their feet for us loyal fans who stayed behind. You’re cool.

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I just (finally) saw the 2010 version of The Tempest, the one with Helen Mirren. It’s really, really good. And beautiful. And omg, omg, HELEN, you’re awesome. I never much liked Prospero when I studied the play at school but you I like.

But if you see it, don’t go look on IMDB afterwards. It’s full of people calling it ‘feminist propaganda’ and generally being idiots.

The Hunger Games, the movie

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Oh god you guys, I have a terrible confession. I actually enjoyed that more than the book.

Not by much, and my opinion may well change later. (My opinions do that.) But OH MY GOD. It was BRILLIANT.

I just liked that that they opened it up beyond Katniss’s POV, I reckon. Obviously I love Katniss, a lot, but this- you saw through Rue’s eyes as she was dying, and you saw through President Snow’s eyes as Katniss becomes a threat, and you saw the people of the Capitol being so horribly like us- it just sort of totally elevated it for me. Sometimes with the book you have to hold it at arm’s length a little, because Katniss isn’t always a reliable narrator, but this just totally immersed you in the world and did it SO WELL and ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH I CAN’T EVEN FIND THE WORDS IT WAS SO GOOD.

(And they cut out all the subplots that ended up going nowhere, like the Avox girl story. Which was 100% the correct choice.)

Yeah, I literally can’t think of a single thing I didn’t like about it. I loved the chariot/Girl On Fire scene and the sense of Ancient Rome there – panem et circenses. I loved that they gave Seneca Crane a bigger role and served him up a poetic death, I loved that they managed to make Cato slightly sympathetic in his final scene, I LOVED that we saw the District 11 rebellion (that man who runs out first, was that meant to be Rue’s dad? I like to think it was), I loved it all. Seriously.

Some random notes:

-Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss is spot-on perfect casting, and she’s brilliant
-Amandla Stenberg as Rue is also spot-on perfect casting, as is Josh Hutcherson as Peeta
-In fact, they’re all brilliant. The only castings I don’t completely love are a) Liam Hemsworth as Gale, because I always imagined Gale as black (even after we got a physical description in the books and it was clear he probably wasn’t, I still had this really clear image of him in my head) and b) Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, because my ideal Haymitch will always be Jack Black.
-I loved how Katniss hugging Prim at the beginning and hugging Rue near the end are shot from almost exactly the same angles, letting you know that Katniss sees Rue as a sister without actually saying it.
-This movie made me ship Katniss/Cinna a little bit. Just a little bit.

On another note, THANK YOU filmmakers for refusing to pander to the strangely Twilight-obsessed media and downplaying the love triangle- even downplaying the actual love story! Cos Hunger Games isn’t a love story, it’s about one girl-turned-woman’s battle for survival, and I love that.

Sherlock Holmes- A Game Of Shadows

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Not as good as the first film (which is easily in my top ten favourite movies ever) but not bad. Pretty darn good in fact.

Liked:

-Stephen Fry alone is worth the price of admission. Also he gets naked at one point (for no plot reason at all). And he’s totally playing Mycroft as gay, which I’m all for.

-The relationship between Holmes and Watson is just as complicated and lovely as in the first film. While Watson may (probably) love his wife more than he loves his best friend, Holmes’ truest love is always gonna be Watson. And they have a little dance together! Which you’d think would raise eyebrows in that era, but no-one does, and that’s still cool.

-Damn, the chemistry between RDJ and Rachel McAdams is through the roof. Then again, as nicely demonstrated by ALL THIS MOVIE, Robert Downey Jr has chemistry with anything that breathes.

-Liked Sim and her fighting skillz, although she didn’t have an awful lot to do really.

-Moriarty was pretty good. Shame he probably won’t return for the threequel…

-Hey look, it’s Colonel Moran! Looking nothing like I pictured him…or how he’s described in the book…but even so.

-The final get-out clause at the end is actually pretty well done. Cos there’s so much stuff in the film- random objects and inventions- that when one turns out to be important it’s not actually a cheat. Or it doesn’t feel like one.

-I love Mary. Does no-one else love Mary?

Disliked:

-They killed off Irene BEFORE EVEN THE OPENING CREDITS. :(

-Not enough Lestrade. Or really, any Lestrade beyond a tiny cameo.

Super 8

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The last person in the world to see Super 8? Possibly me!

I loved this film, honestly loved it. I don’t think it was trying to say anything all that profound (beyond ‘let go of your grief’) but it was so fun. Full of jump moments and o-m-g-what-the-hell-is-that moments. And Elle Fanning is fabulous. Acting skills must really run in that family.

I couldn’t bring myself to have that much sympathy for the monster, though. What happened to it was terrible (why, humans? why?) but it did kill a lot of innocent people, so ET it wasn’t. Although I quietly like to think that his species and ET come from neighbouring planets.

I do love that the kids basically made the monster leave…by telling it off. Heh. You could only really pull off a movie like this from a child’s perspective, couldn’t you? Without that, it’d be…well, it’d be Cloverfield. And Cloverfield is fabulous, but it’s a gimmick that only really works once. (Also, does anyone hope that this is what JJ Abrams made instead of the proposed Cloverfield sequel? Because I so very don’t want one.)

I wish Alice had had a bit more to do, she was my favourite of the kids. I liked the firecracker kid too, though- oh, and I love that they all actually looked and acted like kids of that age.

Using my War Of The Worlds icon because this had quite a bit in common with that, too. Namely the parent/child theme and the presence of a Fanning…

Rise of the planet of the apes

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Seen this today! It is ape-tastic. I’ve never seen the original but now I want to, so I guess you can say the film did its job in that regard. And Andy Serkis is fabulous, although he always is.

But! Why cast Freida Pinto if you’re going to give her nothing to do? She might as well have not been in the film for all she actually did, she had no personality, no meaningful lines…why, oh movie company, why? Is she just there so they can have A Girl? Huh.

(no subject)

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Saw Inception today! I’m probably the last person on LJ to see it, right?

Generally I liked it, the special effects were gorgeous, but I guess I didn’t feel the connection with the characters that I’d have liked. Although Ellen Page was great, and I actually kinda wish the film had been about her instead of Leo DiCaprio.

So yeah, very very stylish, I just wish it had a teeny bit more substance.

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