Movie mini reviews

[Roman Totale]

I meant to post a Spider-man review, but I forgot. Thoughts in brief:

* As Joose says, Andrew Garfield is great for the character - even the way he stands and talks seems much closer to the Spider-man I know than Maguire

* Lizard looks a bit poo

* My attention drifted at several points - they could have trimmed a fair bit from the film

* The "post credits scene" is really disappointing - barely a teaser at all

* Good film, but it didn't have the same feel as the other recent Marvel films. I can't put my finger on it, but it felt like something was missing (no, not Samuel L Jackson)

Edit: hmm, my negatives points outweigh the good ones, but it's still a very good film so I'd recommend it.

[Roman Totale]

The Dark Knight Rises

I'm going to spoiler all this, not because it contains that many spoilers, but I know that I personally tried to avoid any reviews before watching it so I'll hide it for other people.

Spoiler:

I'm going to start sound like a miserable bastard, but this is the most disappointing film I have ever seen. Years of waiting, anticipation and excitement, and it turns out to be as flat as a pancake. They should call it The Damp Squib Rises ho ho ho hilarious.

Nothing happens. Straight after the film and even this morning I try to think of a really good stand out scene. Hrm, nope, coming up blank. Actually the end is really good (and I don't mean that facetiously), about the last 5 or 10 minutes are really powerful and poignant, but by that time I was literally looking at my watch wondering how long was left to go. And that's the other problem - it's too fucking long. I wouldn't mind if it was long and packed with great scenes, but it's not. Even up to around the 2.5 hours mark there are scenes that have been put in there just to try and prolong the tension that are utterly unnecessary.

For a Batman film, there isn't much Batman. There isn't even much Bruce Wayne now I think about it. Oh the character is there on screen, but the dialogue and interactions with other people is strangely missing. Two stand out relationship from the other films, Alfred and Lucius Fox, are really watered down. The warmth between the three of them added huge amounts to the first two films, and now it's just gone. Anne Hathaway is all right as Cat Woman, but she doesn't really bring a huge amount to the role. And Bane, oh Bane. I was determined to like him just to shut up the Heath Ledger fanatics, but I'm sorry to say he's not a very good villain. There just isn't that much too him, and the mask covering his face takes away any sense of character coming from Tom Hardy. Oh, and he is quite difficult to understand, though it did lead to many comedy "Meestah Waaaayne" comments coming out of the cinema.

Ultimately I think it's too big (yes, that is exactly what she said). But for all its grand designs and wide ranging scope, it doesn't actually manage to hit the target.

I feel a little bit betrayed. This should have been one of the greatest films of our time, but instead it's a bloated nondescript let down. You might think I didn't like it as much because my expectations were so high, but honestly if you see it, the next day try and think of a particular stand out scene (other than the ending) that makes you want to go back and watch it again.

[buzzmong]

I've not read all that because I want to avoid anything before I see it, but I have to ask: Is it good?

[spoodie]

I've not read all that because I want to avoid anything before I see it, but I have to ask: Is it good?

I would say it's a good film. Although it certainly has its faults and doesn't live up to the hype, like Prometheus. Not being much of a Nolan fan as others seem to be my expectations weren't that high. I do agree with pretty much all Roman has said above though.

Empire gave it 5 stars, which is ridiculous.

[Thompy]

Is it more in the vein of Batdog Begins or The Black Knight? I didn't care for the latter.

[spoodie]

Is it more in the vein of Batdog Begins or The Black Knight?

Um, yes? What do you consider different between those two? I find all 3 films to be very similar in many aspects.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

More importantly, did you get shot at when you went to see it?

[deject]

I thought TDKR was good, but there was just too much lazy writing giving rise to coincidence and plot holes. The one plot hole that really stuck out for me was

Spoiler:

the stupid "leap of freedom" thing in that prison. The walls of that place were littered with cracks and seams easily big enough for a good free climber to use to climb up. Instead of just climbing up, you have to make a really stupid metaphorical jump.

So fucking dumb.

Definitely not as good as The Dark Knight was. Just OK.

[Roman Totale]

I'm keen for more views on TDKR - everywhere I look people are saying it's the best thing since sliced Jesus.

[spoodie]

I understand the Telegraph gave it 2 stars because is was unrealistic or something. But I give The Telegraph 1 star, so I'm not going to check the site.

[Joose]

I really enjoyed it. Not as good as Dark Knight, but that's a pretty fucking high bar to aim for, so im not really surprised there. It didnt have as many memorable moments, but it had some, and to be honest I think that was more a case of it having long very good bits rather than brief moments of utter awesome. Bane was Mr Mumbles, which was chuffing irritating, but I didn't miss any of his dialogue. I've heard some people say they couldn't understand a word he said, but I can only conclude that either they were deaf or their cinemas sound system desperately needs upgrading. What really annoyed me about that was it was completely unnecessary:

Spoiler:

I can understand why they didn't want to go for the traditional luchador mask for him, as that is exceptionally hard to not make look stupid. I also understand that they were emphasising how the doctor fucked up his medical treatment, and that's why they needed the mask, so I can forgive him having a weird re-breather on his face. Im not sure I would have gone that way, but fine. The thing is, there have been a great many characters in films with masks on, whos mask affected their speech, but who didn't sound like they were talking through a towel. Darth Vader, for example. Just make it a bit deeper and give it a slight echo and it will sound perfectly masky enough without making it any harder to understand.

What Deej said did occur to me as a bit of a plot problem too, but I thought of another.

Spoiler:

The bomb was described as having a blast radius of 6 miles. That means that for the batcopter thing to have taken it to a safe distance, it would need to be at least 6 miles out into the bay, preferably more. It didn't start off at the waterside, but the island itself isn't all that huge, so lets say it went 7 miles out, or thereabouts. The last time we saw the timer was just as it was being hefted up, and it was on around 1m20s (slightly under that I think, but that's close enough for my point). That means the batcopter would have had to *average* about 315 miles per hour. It certainly didn't jump to top speed straight away, so it would have had to have hit a top speed waaay faster than that. By comparison, a quick googling suggests the fastest real helicopter in the world can only go about 250ish.

EDIT: Oh, forgot to mention, even if you don't think you will like the film, even if you didn't like the other Nolan Batman films, this one is in my opinion worth watching if only for one thing. Anne Hathaway in a catwoman outfit. Theres a bit where she slinks over the bike thing that almost made me have a crisis.

[deject]

I'm keen for more views on TDKR - everywhere I look people are saying it's the best thing since sliced Jesus.

I really don't get people who think it's better than The Dark Knight at all. TDK was carried very much by Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker. No one in TDKR really comes anywhere close. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is great as always, and Anne Hathaway is hot, but there aren't any real standout performances. Coupled with the more superhero-level plot and according difficulty to suspend disbelief, it's just going to be weaker.

[TezzRexx]

Still not seen it yet (or Spiderman) which I'm both dying to see, just hope I get the chance before they get taken off!

But i'll be sure to give my 2 pence

[FatherJack]

Re: spoiler

Airwolf could travel at Mach 1, double that required. You saying the Batcopter isn't as good as Airwolf? Perhaps it was written as the Batwing or something and they forgot to redo the maths.

[Joose]

Airwolf could travel at Mach 1, double that required. You saying the Batcopter isn't as good as Airwolf?

Airwolf is from the 80's. Physics was different then, and could be overruled by the sheer power of awesome.

Airwolf was a case of "Fuck science, this is sweet." This seems more a case of them not thinking things through.

[Roman Totale]

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is great as always

I meant to say this earlier, but he was fantastic in it - personally I thought his was one of the best performances.

Also The Bat could only have reached those speeds if Ernest Borgnine flew it.

[Joose]

I meant to say this earlier, but he was fantastic in it - personally I thought his was one of the best performances.

Which is something I was wondering about: What the hell is going on there? For years he was just "That guy from 3rd rock from the sun", then all of a sudden he is in multiple major rolls being balls out awesome every time. Has he been replaced by a acting-robot from the future? Did he have a gradual and explicable increase in skill and fame in some mirror universe? I keep half expecting it to be revealed that he sold his soul to Mr Satan for fame and mad skillz.

[Thompy]

For years he was just "That guy from 3rd rock from the sun", then all of a sudden he is in multiple major rolls being balls out awesome every time.

Core of the 3rd Rock cast was pretty awesome, and I've never given his transition to films any thought at all. Did you mean to imply that you thought he was average in 3rd Rock, or that you hadn't given him much thought as it was just a sit-com?

Tangent: I'd definitely apply what you said to Emile Hirsch. I've seen him in two films, The Girl Next Door and Into the Wild. That's one serious shift in quality.

Edit: Also Leonardo DiCaprio. He was always just "that guy from Titanic/R&J" to me, but after his comeback in The Beach his credit list rivals Tom Cruise.

[Joose]

Did you mean to imply that you thought he was average in 3rd Rock, or that you hadn't given him much thought as it was just a sit-com?

No, not at all, he was excellent in that too. I just find it a really odd career progression he has. Looking at IMDB, he seems to go

3rd rock

a whole load of nothingy films most of which I've not even heard of

Inception

[Thompy]

Fair do's, I'd agree. There is 500 Days of Summer in between though, which is the only one I've heard of. I'd guess that was his break through rather than Inception.