So, haven't blogged since Brett Favre was a Packer....gee, who would've thought we'd ever see that guy in any uniform other than Packers green. I just can't see it, here's $2 million to sit at home and do nothing or here's $12 to be behind an offensive line that you could be a vegetable every snap possibly. What would you do?
So I saw The Dark Knight and although I really liked it, far far far far far too much hyperbole being attached to the film. I thought Heath Ledger was good, but truthfully, what wasn't he good in? I never and will never see Brokeback Mountain so I can't say about that film. The Dark Knight is a good movie, but not even my favorite of the summer(still is Iron Man), and best comic book movie ever, come on. My biggest problem with The Dark Knight, and it's there in Batman Begins(which by the way I liked better than TDK) is the desire to explain some things and have them be realistic(almost hyper-realistic) but not explain others or have them be sillier than the comic book version. Let's just look at the Joker (by the way here is the link for the original Joker concept art:http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/08/07/the-dark-knight-early-joker-concept-art/, which movie villain does this look a lot like? Can you say Leatherface?). Yes, Heath Ledger does an awesome job with what he was given, and his direction with the character is somewhat viable. However, I think(IMHO) in the best Joker comics he retains some of his campiness, because I think the reader is supposed to believe he thinks he's funny. He's not just an anarchist, he thinks disorder is laughable. The only scene that really embraces this aspect of the character is when he meets the mob goons. The magic trick was something the Joker would do in a comic. But I don't think he would just create Two-Face to create him(he didn't in the comics it was a mob boss). I guess I wanted to see him laugh more, or something. So don't get me wrong I liked TDK, I just think it wasn't the greatest comic book movie ever. That being said, here we go:
1) Superman (1978) Ok, so the scene where Glen Ford says to a high school aged Clark "I don't know what you were put on this Earth to do, but it wasn't to score touchdowns." Still brings tears to my eyes thinking about it. That was my father's favorite scene in the movie, and I understand why. We as a people are always starting about 1940s and 1930s mentalities but the truth of the matter is, if Superman landed any later than that, he wouldn't be Superman. After the 1950s you can't have Superman as we know him. Glen Ford is who makes Clark Superman, and sometimes we need those people with their cut-and-dry mentality to give us purpose. Sometimes we need to be told we have a greater purpose than our own glory, and that is one of the big reasons this is the best comic book movie ever. In addition, it was a comic book movie, not an attempt to make a crime drama film into a comic book movie.
2)Iron Man(2008) Great acting, great effects what more do you want from a comic book movie? The bad guy was a bad guy. The good guy was superhuman, essentially. Plus, again not afraid to be a comic book movie. All that it is missing is a big speech.
3) X2(2003) The scene where the military invades the mansion, Nightcrawler's assassination attempt on the President....I think this was the first film to literally take some panels from some comic books and put them on film.
4)Batman Begins(2005) Serious and real, but still a comic book movie. The only problem with this film is the more I watch it, I realize yeah Christopher Nolan really can't film any sort of action sequence(that's why The Prestige is his best film, since it is all character driven), and I really really agree with Liam Neeson once Gotham had become that bad just destroy it and start over again.
5)Spiderman 2 (2004) The only problem with this movie(well two I guess, ok three and that's all I'm mentioning). The villain was really not that good, Kristen Dunst seems like she is sleepwalking and not acting, talk about someone whose looks have made them, and they made Spiderman 3 which overshadow in badness how good this movie really was. The whole subway car scene in a way was stolen for the ferry boat scene in TDK(I'm not the only one who thought that was derivative am I?).
If I had to continue, I would probably go X-Men then TDK. But movies are really pas see anymore, because as they go up in price(it costs us $26 to see Space Chimps this weekend with no concession stand items) Video Games are staying the same price.
Madden 09 came out today and do you have any idea the enjoyment hours I will get out of that compared to TDK for instance, or even Iron Man? Financial from a purely utilitarian perspective movies are failing. If anything they should be lowering their prices not raising them. It's no wonder video games trash them. As much as I love movies, and I do, I was raised watching them, I fully expect my children and their generation to possibly not even go to movie theatres and watch movies online, and go out to midnight releases of video games, not films. but we will see.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
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