By now, it's no mystery of the success of The Dark Knight. Praises are being sung across internet and reality print alike with a few grumbling voices whose greatest gripe appears to be "it wasn't that great," followed by a smile of "but still really cool." A truly brilliant collaboration of talent that put me in the theater three times thanks to varying friends' opportunities.
With this movie, there is much to find entertaining. From the story, to the philosophical struggles, to the actors' performances, you can work all the way down to the craft services table and find ways to talk about how great it was (tell Joey, the caterer, "good sandwiches;" he likes that). I took a handful of joys though, and at three times viewing, I figured I'd offer my top three.
#3- Photography
This is where I show my nerd cred and do some old Film Arts professors proud. The actual look of the film was really engrossing. From start to finish, you felt, like its predecessor, that this film happened in the here and now and displayed at its most real. Every dip of the camera, every subtle pull-in of frame let you see the harsh world that the characters lived in without crossing into over-the-top territory. Halfway into the world of The Dark Knight, I had to mentally slap myself to remember this was a comic movie and not a modern day crime caper. Turning off the sound and just pausing may take you out of the film, but it'll give you some gorgeous screenshots for a wallpaper desktop.
#2- Jim Gordon
One of the great supporting characters of the Batman universe who often was reduced to an almost bumbling role of police commissioner really got to shine in this film. Between the story laid out for the character and Gary Oldman's strengths as an actor, Gordon adds to an already bursting ensemble cast of characters, providing depth and a human face to the realities of the world. You see a conflicted idealist, striving to protect his city, his family, but making deals along the way to make it all work. Some of them pay off, some don't. With as much screen and story time as Gordon received, I'm surprised he didn't have a promotional poster of his own, staring balefully out at as a human stuck in a world gone to Batman and Joker.
#1- Joker's "Where Are My Keys?"
As movie myth has it, Heath Ledger, in preparing for his final role, locked himself in a hotel for weeks trying to build the lunacy of the Joker from head to toe with conviction. From voice, to look, to body language, he made Joker vibrate with pure insanity. What I saw as the most clever twist he put on this insanity was that body language. How he shuffled, glancing about casually and not quite fully concerned with the here and now, Joker almost seemed to always be going, "Where are my keys?" It wasn't an occasional event when Ledger made this happen, this was the character's default state of being. From killing so many people to just casually chatting, he constantly projected a body language based around the search for his car keys. Watch for it and wonder if you look that sane when you've lost the remote.
These were just a few of my discoveries upon staring up at The Dark Knight so many times. I'm sure with even more viewings I'll be reporting on the lighting design, the sound quality and yes, even craft services (remember Joey, he makes a mean sammich).
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Hellboy II: The Shiny Cartoon
Since his triumphant hit Pan's Labyrinth, Guillermo Del Toro seems to have been taken off the chain that held him back from leaping at making the fantastical commonplace in our world. Though you can argue with a list like Mimic, Hellboy and Blade II, all big monster movies with shiny effects and growling visceral creatures clearly on-screen, that this chain was released long ago, they pale in comparison to the visual feast that was Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
Grim faeries with jagged teeth pop from corners, greasy and old goblins lurch along the background and the whole time you feel like you're seeing the world through Del Toro's gleeful fantastico-world vision. The details, the colors, the vibrating life, most done without straight computer effects and only aided here and there by them, this rubber monster world is a waking dream that makes bathroom trips a problem because you're worried you'll miss something really cool looking. Contrarily, that detail and visual heft does not extend to the plot of the film.
Having seen that a simple plot with clever characterization can push his films along just as well as the darkly intricate ones as shown in Pan, Del Toro doesn't load the story too heavy like the previous Hellboy, which was practically bursting with all the activity. Here, it's streamlined and fast. Very fast, in fact; almost cartoonishly so.
In fact, next to the dominating visual aesthetic Del Toro commands, I couldn't help but notice this film was practically screaming along in comparison to his previous works. It was bouncy and light and well... Fun.
Wow. There's something I'd never think to say about Hellboy or a Del Toro movie- just fun.
Whereas the first Hellboy was a labor of love, courting the fans and demonstrating how much Del Toro cares for his rubber monster world, this one is an understanding that we all know what's going on so let's enjoy it this time, eh? And this pays off quite well, letting a warm, red and amber light filter through what was once a red and black set.
You get chuckling romance out of the geeky Abe Sapien, you get sitcom-esque relationship difficulties with Hellboy and fire fatale Liz Sherman, you get lots of monster fighting and explosions, then Seth MacFarlane, famous for the voices of Family Guy, shows up as Johann Krauss to let Hellboy fire off some good ol' boy anti-German cracks. Then there's the drunken bonding of Abe and Hellboy, which is a series of scenes worthy of their own sitcom. Couple such goofiness with a balance of dark and twisted creatures, well-timed moments of touching emotion and a sweeping dreamlike vision and you've got a film that's a steady fun ride.
Normally, I pick around for the one scene that sold me or the actor that made it all worthwhile, but Hellboy II: The Golden Army won me over in broad strokes for just being a live-action PG-13 cartoon. It was good fun, some clever one-liners and just a jazzy feel over all. You never get quite hefted down into its doom and gloom and never kept light enough in interest that it becomes boring.
It was like a prophet was whispering into Del Toro's ear and told him how huge this summer was going to be and so he opted not to blow us away, provoke us or leave a mark of DIRECTOR, but to keep us happy. With most of the blockbusters these past few months prompting huge reactions and sweeping gestures, Hellboy's sequel is the good-enough burger and beer we all may not remember, but always come back to: watching, re-watching and re-watching comfortably and enjoying it all the while.
Grim faeries with jagged teeth pop from corners, greasy and old goblins lurch along the background and the whole time you feel like you're seeing the world through Del Toro's gleeful fantastico-world vision. The details, the colors, the vibrating life, most done without straight computer effects and only aided here and there by them, this rubber monster world is a waking dream that makes bathroom trips a problem because you're worried you'll miss something really cool looking. Contrarily, that detail and visual heft does not extend to the plot of the film.
Having seen that a simple plot with clever characterization can push his films along just as well as the darkly intricate ones as shown in Pan, Del Toro doesn't load the story too heavy like the previous Hellboy, which was practically bursting with all the activity. Here, it's streamlined and fast. Very fast, in fact; almost cartoonishly so.
In fact, next to the dominating visual aesthetic Del Toro commands, I couldn't help but notice this film was practically screaming along in comparison to his previous works. It was bouncy and light and well... Fun.
Wow. There's something I'd never think to say about Hellboy or a Del Toro movie- just fun.
Whereas the first Hellboy was a labor of love, courting the fans and demonstrating how much Del Toro cares for his rubber monster world, this one is an understanding that we all know what's going on so let's enjoy it this time, eh? And this pays off quite well, letting a warm, red and amber light filter through what was once a red and black set.
You get chuckling romance out of the geeky Abe Sapien, you get sitcom-esque relationship difficulties with Hellboy and fire fatale Liz Sherman, you get lots of monster fighting and explosions, then Seth MacFarlane, famous for the voices of Family Guy, shows up as Johann Krauss to let Hellboy fire off some good ol' boy anti-German cracks. Then there's the drunken bonding of Abe and Hellboy, which is a series of scenes worthy of their own sitcom. Couple such goofiness with a balance of dark and twisted creatures, well-timed moments of touching emotion and a sweeping dreamlike vision and you've got a film that's a steady fun ride.
Normally, I pick around for the one scene that sold me or the actor that made it all worthwhile, but Hellboy II: The Golden Army won me over in broad strokes for just being a live-action PG-13 cartoon. It was good fun, some clever one-liners and just a jazzy feel over all. You never get quite hefted down into its doom and gloom and never kept light enough in interest that it becomes boring.
It was like a prophet was whispering into Del Toro's ear and told him how huge this summer was going to be and so he opted not to blow us away, provoke us or leave a mark of DIRECTOR, but to keep us happy. With most of the blockbusters these past few months prompting huge reactions and sweeping gestures, Hellboy's sequel is the good-enough burger and beer we all may not remember, but always come back to: watching, re-watching and re-watching comfortably and enjoying it all the while.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
un-WANTED
So while many geeks streamed to Wall-E and many others went to WANTED, I've a job that lets me tackle both at the same time, though I saw Wall-E twice before going to WANTED.
Which says so much right there.
Wall-E is a given. Go see it, you're hearing the buzz, it is love and PIXAR poops magical animation fairies that keep them from making bad movies.
WANTED is a different machine. Very different. Almost completely unrelated to its source material different.
This is not a new habit in Hollywood as those of us who open those crazy book things and attend theater are well aware. Don't think this is my offensive against the average movie goers the world over because I'm an artsy intelligista- no really, don't think this, you'll probably sprain yourself- understand that this is how Art sometimes works. You see her work over there and think, oh what a sweet Art thing, I bet I can put my own spin on it, and you ask her if you can and she's like- okay, this sounds cool and soon everyone's looking at something that vaguely resembles the Art that originally stood before. Sometimes this works out and sometimes everyone is left wondering where their underwear went.
I digress into a point though.
Like many comic book-based films before it, WANTED deals with a fair amount of translation, especially since the original story had lots of in-jokes and ribbing of supervillains and the comics community that most people just wouldn't get unless you've been in the barracks with the rest of us nerdy losers screaming for dear life when an arc went Clone Saga on our asses. This is understandable and desirable. I like Change. Change means I can get something new and cool and in WANTED, there stood the potential for that. Unfortunately, that potential went tits-up halfway into the flick and I was left standing around wondering where my underwear went.
It wasn't a total bust though as James McAvoy has shown he can be an action god and make Neo look like a slow learner in the bullet-time class of action. In fact, he's one of the shining happy points of the movie, and since he's the main character even when the script, plot and supporting characters bail on him for parts unknown it's like having a healthy portion of a boat still taking you back home to port after a storm took the crew, some oars, most of the sail, the parrot and your love of the sea.
Seriously though, he's charming, believable, cut like a young 300 extra and really brings his role to life. Even when he's essentially following this crazy line of logic through the doodly lines of the plot, you still buy into McAvoy's performance. He did the same thing to me in Narnia where I was mildly bored with everything till he showed up as Mr. Tumnus and projected this quirk of joy and magic in his character that really kept the movie aloft for me. He's like Holly Hunter, who apparently can make even a bad script sound perfect. It's a shame these kinds of movies don't win Oscars because in the hands of a lesser actor, this thing would've just been a phoned-in action adaptation of a comic book. So let's all watch James McAvoy and think, "Gee, he's awesome. I want him to be the next Spider-man when Tobey Maguire falls off his ego."
Another high point that kept me going when the Loom of Fate showed up and looked really cool, but was not really connected to anybody's drive or actions or... Well, anything, was the music. Hoo-ray for Danny Elfman. Trent Reznor licks, hard guitars mixed with elegiac violins, and well-timed blasts of crescendo totally had me banging my head in the theater. I am actually inspired, in our techno-babble-times to actually go out and buy the CD to this thing.
The last bit that caught my eye before I gave up hoping Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie (the two heavyweight names who were hired to sneak the mass audience into a comic book movie) will do something interesting with their characters to make me give a shat was a lingering suspicion that one of the training guys looked familiar. And Repairman totally was! Like McAvoy, who was imported from across the pond for this film, Marc Warren is an English chap who's done some cool work. You can see him creeping you the hell out in Hogfather as Mr. Teatime and rocking out as Elton Pope in the "Love and Monsters" episode of Doctor Who. Such a shame he fell into this trick of a flick.
I felt tricked I guess. "Curve the bullet," "Kill one, save a thousand," big name actors and Mr. Tumnus showing his bad-ass side. It all sounded so good, but then when presented, it made me feel like I was watching a rough Assassin's Creed fanfiction that took place in the 20th century. Guess I'll have to keep an eye out for random Textile Factories to be sure.
Which says so much right there.
Wall-E is a given. Go see it, you're hearing the buzz, it is love and PIXAR poops magical animation fairies that keep them from making bad movies.
WANTED is a different machine. Very different. Almost completely unrelated to its source material different.
This is not a new habit in Hollywood as those of us who open those crazy book things and attend theater are well aware. Don't think this is my offensive against the average movie goers the world over because I'm an artsy intelligista- no really, don't think this, you'll probably sprain yourself- understand that this is how Art sometimes works. You see her work over there and think, oh what a sweet Art thing, I bet I can put my own spin on it, and you ask her if you can and she's like- okay, this sounds cool and soon everyone's looking at something that vaguely resembles the Art that originally stood before. Sometimes this works out and sometimes everyone is left wondering where their underwear went.
I digress into a point though.
Like many comic book-based films before it, WANTED deals with a fair amount of translation, especially since the original story had lots of in-jokes and ribbing of supervillains and the comics community that most people just wouldn't get unless you've been in the barracks with the rest of us nerdy losers screaming for dear life when an arc went Clone Saga on our asses. This is understandable and desirable. I like Change. Change means I can get something new and cool and in WANTED, there stood the potential for that. Unfortunately, that potential went tits-up halfway into the flick and I was left standing around wondering where my underwear went.
It wasn't a total bust though as James McAvoy has shown he can be an action god and make Neo look like a slow learner in the bullet-time class of action. In fact, he's one of the shining happy points of the movie, and since he's the main character even when the script, plot and supporting characters bail on him for parts unknown it's like having a healthy portion of a boat still taking you back home to port after a storm took the crew, some oars, most of the sail, the parrot and your love of the sea.
Seriously though, he's charming, believable, cut like a young 300 extra and really brings his role to life. Even when he's essentially following this crazy line of logic through the doodly lines of the plot, you still buy into McAvoy's performance. He did the same thing to me in Narnia where I was mildly bored with everything till he showed up as Mr. Tumnus and projected this quirk of joy and magic in his character that really kept the movie aloft for me. He's like Holly Hunter, who apparently can make even a bad script sound perfect. It's a shame these kinds of movies don't win Oscars because in the hands of a lesser actor, this thing would've just been a phoned-in action adaptation of a comic book. So let's all watch James McAvoy and think, "Gee, he's awesome. I want him to be the next Spider-man when Tobey Maguire falls off his ego."
Another high point that kept me going when the Loom of Fate showed up and looked really cool, but was not really connected to anybody's drive or actions or... Well, anything, was the music. Hoo-ray for Danny Elfman. Trent Reznor licks, hard guitars mixed with elegiac violins, and well-timed blasts of crescendo totally had me banging my head in the theater. I am actually inspired, in our techno-babble-times to actually go out and buy the CD to this thing.
The last bit that caught my eye before I gave up hoping Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie (the two heavyweight names who were hired to sneak the mass audience into a comic book movie) will do something interesting with their characters to make me give a shat was a lingering suspicion that one of the training guys looked familiar. And Repairman totally was! Like McAvoy, who was imported from across the pond for this film, Marc Warren is an English chap who's done some cool work. You can see him creeping you the hell out in Hogfather as Mr. Teatime and rocking out as Elton Pope in the "Love and Monsters" episode of Doctor Who. Such a shame he fell into this trick of a flick.
I felt tricked I guess. "Curve the bullet," "Kill one, save a thousand," big name actors and Mr. Tumnus showing his bad-ass side. It all sounded so good, but then when presented, it made me feel like I was watching a rough Assassin's Creed fanfiction that took place in the 20th century. Guess I'll have to keep an eye out for random Textile Factories to be sure.
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