Why do good things go bad? One of the great mysteries...
#16
Posted 28 April 2004 - 12:17 AM
The story about how two men who are at the opposite side of the spectrum, yet both outcasts from society, is a very good yarn.
I find it to be a very interesting movie just for the sake of psychology - the way it carefully explores Bruce Wayne and his Batman alter-ego is very gripping and it is so well paced in the way it reveals information.
The pacing in this film is perfect.
And the conflict between Batman and the Joker is powerful stuff. Both of these men are fully realised characters, very well developed and played by two very strong actors. Their confrontations throughout the movie serve the momentum of the plot very well and when the final showdown comes, as the culmination of this story arc, it is a gripping finale indeed.
Watching the Batwing go down was one of the most memorable scenes from an action-adventure movie I've seen in a long time.
I'll keep this post short but I felt this film can rightfully be called a masterpiece. It was one of the strongest movies of the decade in which it was released. I saw this thing when I was in primary school - and watching it now, it still feels fresh and grips me just as it did then... perhaps more so. Batman is an enduring classic.
#17
Posted 28 April 2004 - 04:18 AM
Everything fun and comical anc campy in the gadget-heavy scenes and the goofy sight gags was done much better in the 1966 tv-derived film starrng Adam West.
I loved Tim Burton's BATMAN. But it didn't redefine the comic book genre as a lot of people believe. Comic books had already redefined themselves, and BATMAN was a cash-grab by a major studio that saw well after everyone else that this Batman thng might be worth something. It's a lot of fun, and I've seen it a bunch of times, but it's not a masterpiece. There are no masterpieces with Kim Basinger in them.
#20
Posted 28 April 2004 - 04:48 AM
Does LA CONFIDENTIAL qualify as a masterpiece then?
It's certainly a solid film, well-crafted, well-paced with very strong performances by everyone in the cast. And it's a very intelligent thought-provoking film, while at the same time being entertaining with never a dull moment.
Good counter-argument, Jordan.
#22
Posted 28 April 2004 - 11:09 AM
I'm sure I'd like it more if I watched it again.
#23
Posted 28 April 2004 - 12:09 PM
You're right it didn't redefine the comic book genre. It redefined the comic book MOVIE genre.
#24
Posted 28 April 2004 - 12:12 PM
Kim Basinger was good in Batman. I mean really, it wasn't like her role required shakespearean acting or anything.
She was also 100x better in Batman than Kirsten Dunst was in SPIDEMAN. God, could Mary Jane look any uglier???? :yuck: Yellow teeth, fake red hair and trailer trash clothes . Now there is a turn-on.
#26
Posted 28 April 2004 - 02:06 PM
"Batman Returns"...ugh. "I am Oswald Copplepot!" What utter dredge.
#27
Posted 28 April 2004 - 07:09 PM
I didn't at first either. But when I actually saw the movie, I was amazed at what a great job he did. Especially as Batman. He really took an about face with his acting style and played serious perfectly.
Keaton IMO, did sucha good job that in many ways he has BECOME Batman much in the same way that Christopher Reeves is SUPERMAN.
#28
Posted 28 April 2004 - 08:34 PM
Well, if by that it took comic book movies from lame rip-offs of a hero's basic look with occasional hollahs to the source material, and changed them to not-so-lame rip-off of specific source material watered down by enough generic action-film garbage to make the producers less skittish, then , well, yes.
Frankly all the press around the way Tim Burton had made BATMAN "darker, edgier" than he was in the comics and in "the TV series you may remember" was pretty damned annoying. I'll try to say it again: Tim Burton's film stole all that stuff from Frank Miller (and a few others), and not all that well.
And yeah, this was the formula of X-MEN, and SPIDERMAN, and very much so DAREDEVIL (which watered down all of the plot of the Elektra story just enough to make it insubstantial, and not as refreshing as actual water). Cheap copies, with lines taken directly from the page, but without enough story or delivery to make them work. Rather like BATMAN (which I enjoyed).
So you may have me there.
#29
Posted 28 April 2004 - 09:26 PM
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#30
Posted 28 April 2004 - 09:34 PM
Great line, Civ.
(not seen daredevil)
Do remember how excited we were that taco bell had "bat-cups" one summer, though!
ps- later that (same) year, WB released the (summer) Batman movie vhs for Christmas sales. which was a first, I believe.