The Dark Knight Rises

I saw The Dark Knight Rises while staying home with a sick child.  Consequently, I saw it in two sessions while my little one slept.  I spent the film’s entire 2.5-hour running time with my finger on the volume control.

The problem, at least with the film’s BluRay release, lies in the sound mixing.  The gunfire and explosions are so loud in comparison with the dialogue that I felt it was giving me a choice between waking my son during the action sequences or understanding the dialogue during the rest.  If you live in an apartment or share space with people who don’t wish their living room to sound like Armageddon, be warned.

On to the movie.  The Dark Knight Rises asks the filmic question: what if the Occupy people get their wish?  Its answer: French Revolution 2.  Despotism.  Kangaroo Courts.  Chaos.  Only the rich, working anonymously and unfettered from the rule of law, can protect the cringing middle class from the depredations of the fickle mob.

I’m not even a hippie, and I could see that message as if it were carefully painted in Sterno on an icy bridge in the middle of the night and set afire because some rich guy thought it would look cool.

Ok, but is the film any good?  Well, it does move along at a speedy clip, the freakishly beautiful Anne Hathaway actually made me forget about Michelle Pfeiffer for a good two hours, the rest of the cast turns in respectable performances in none-too-demanding roles, and lots of stuff blows up real good.  In other words, you get what you paid for.

Just keep your finger on that volume button.

The Dark Knight

I went into THE DARK KNIGHT skeptically, wondering whether the ballyhoo surrounding Ledger's performance was justified or sentimental. It was justified.

The Joker, as written in this film, is a high wire character. The actor who plays him will either fail or succeed spectacularly, and Ledger succeeds. His Joker is terrifying and sad and sickly funny and wholly compelling, the Joker by which other incarnations of the character will be judged. As for Batman and Gordon and Dent and Dawes, well, they're all fine, but the fact is that I can barely remember them. That Joker, though, he gives me the shivers. And not in a good way. From voice to mannerisms to makeup to worldview, he's a complete character, one who espouses chaos while wreaking it through meticulous planning; one whose backstory shifts and morphs with each retelling; one you can't put your finger on, but who stays with you.

Wow, what a performance. What a movie. I look forward to seeing THE DARK KNIGHT again.

Batman

So there I am on the couch, a two-year-old balanced on my forehead and an eight-year-old sitting on my chest, while "Batman" plays in the background. It hurts. "How did I get myself into this?" I think. Then Lee Meriwether, in a corset-tight catsuit, comes slinking onto the screen. "Oh, yeah. That's how."

Not that the feature-length "Batman" is only about Lee Meriwether in a corset. It also features Riddler Frank Gorshin in a girdle, though he chooses to wear his on the outside of his costume. And then there's Cesar Romero's Joker, who can't be bothered to shave his moustache, so he simply applies his white makeup over it in hopes that no one will notice. But the king of 'em all is clearly the fabulous Burgess Meredith as Penguin, who manages to simultaneously act his pants off _and_ ham it up, all while having a wonderful time.

And "Batman" feels like a wonderful time. There's a scene in which Robin says something like, "Why'd you save that bar full of drunks, Batman?" Batman replies, "They may be drunks, Robin, but they can still be redeemed." I know, I just _know_, that, at that moment, the cast and crew hoisted a round of frothy mugs at their screening (and kept raising them well into the night). This movie is so silly, so joyfully, gleefully campy, that you can't help but think it was as much fun to make as it is to watch. And who carries it? Yep, Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin. God bless 'em: they're terrible actors, but they're game for anything. No matter how ridiculous the scene, these ultimate squares keep their heads up and refuse to wink at the camera. Of course, their earnest delivery makes things all the sillier.

But silliness alone isn't enough to sell a movie. "Batman" is serious about some things, and it displays a level of craft I certainly did not expect. The bright, cartoonish color palette is both visually pleasing and remarkably consistent. The costuming, lighting, and sound are crisp and professional, even if jarring uses of stock footage of things like Polaris missiles sometimes throws things off. The Blu-Ray edition of this film really shines, and I've got to admit that it was a pleasure to watch.

I fired up "Batman" so my older boy would finally get all the "Batman" references in 'Sponge Bob Square Pants' and 'The Fairly Oddparents.' I never dreamed I'd actually get an enjoyable movie, in the process. Good for you, Batman!

Batman Begins

BATMAN BEGINS in a nutshell:

End of Act 1: Wow! This is as good as big summer blockbusters get!

End of Act 2: Boy, they sure did hire a lot of great actors for supporting roles. Why did the process fail in the casting of Murphy and Holmes, who can't sell their roles? They're a negative, but I'm still enjoying the movie.

End of Act 3: Ugh; two solid thirds hurt by a final third that's just loud and ridiculous. And this movie could have been great.

Bits I liked, overall: Bale, Hauer, Caine, Freeman, Wilkinson, Oldman.
Bits I disliked, overall: Murphy, Holmes. The editing of the fight scenes (Why hire the Equilibrium guy if you aren't going to show us what he can do?). The downgrading of Sgt. Gordon to a goofball.

Verdict: Eh, it was ok.