TDKR
The Dark Knight Rises – The latest Batman movie, which is touted as the end of the series (which is silly – what insane/suicidal Hollywood executive would allow a cash cow like this to end) is not a good movie, connected in spirit and continuity to the inferior first film; sadly, nothing about this one harkens to the quality of the second film, aka Heath Ledger’s last film.
Once again Bruce Wayne is in retreat and brooding in his mansion. He gets drawn out by the treat of someone called Bane, and encouraged by “Miranda Tate” (an all-new character in the Batman universe) to come out. So many people in this film seem to know that Bruce Wayne is Batman that it hardly seems like he has a secret identity any more. There’s goofy stuff about Commissioner Gordon’s moral lapse in living the Harvey Dent lie, which cleans up Gotham City, the Catwoman’s life dilemma (she has to steal to get her life back from the thugs she is in hock to), and then some grand scheme to bring anarchy to Gotham (turning it into a sort of reverse Escape From New York universe, combined with Robespierre’s Reign of Terror). Yes, Bane wins, until we find out that he isn’t the real ringleader; great, just like Batman Begins with that phony Ra’s Al Ghul thing.
So many things are wrong with this movie, such as the way that the movie deviates from the root characters (Bane’s origin has no connection to Thalia Al Ghul, who is treated very lightly here – she is, after all, a longstanding Batman character and is just as close to him as to her own father, and also fathererd his child), how heavily armed thugs tend to fight with their fists than their guns against unarmed opponents like Batman and Robin, and there are many other problems. For instance, there’s a scene when Bane is choking Batman with a thin rope despite Batman’s thick neck armor. Then later, Batman’s thrown into a pit in India (how did he get there) after being bankrupted after a phony attack on the New York Stock Exchange. Gahhh…!!! His broken back heals over several months in captivity in a prison pit, and he manages to climb a wall of death to freedom.
While I didn’t enjoy the first and third of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies, the series’ casting is truly impeccable, with the exception, I suppose, of Katie Holmes at Rachel Dawes and maybe also Marion Cotillard as “Marion Tate”, both of whom are truly inexplicable love interests for Bruce Wayne (especially Tate, in that there’s no indication of mutual attraction or respect, with their too-close-for-comfort fling more like a one night stand than anything).
The movie we watched this 2.5 hour film in had the air conditioning on full blast, I really suffered. Watch this on DVD.
B&R
Batman & Robin – I thought it would be cool to watch both “final” Batman films in the same day, so after watching The Dark Knight Rises in the theater on a Saturday afternoon with my wife, I went home and watched Batman & Robin with my wife and my ten-year-old son Zen (an Arnold Schwarzenegger fan). The differences between the Schumacher films and the Nolan films are glaring, most notably the casting – only Poison Ivy is well-cast, and she even gets some horrible, clunky dialogue, eventually learning to vamp it up like Mae West, and also a little bit of Anita Pallenberg (using her Black Queen’s sinister “Hello my pretty pretty” line from Barbarella). There’s also the use of bad jokes in the series, the smug handsomeness of George Clooney (without a trace of brooding) in this film in particular, the peckerish brattiness of Chris O’Donnell’s Robin (true to the character of the historical Robin, but who wants to see that in a modern update?), the chunky uselessness of Alicia Silverstone’s Batgirl, and the thick make-up applied to Arnold (not to mention the useless glittering plastic items that are strapped to his body, and his flimsy ice gun, etc). The art direction, with its mammoth set pieces, is also a strong negative in this movie (and parts of the series) as well as its heavy use of black-neon contrast and the oafishness of the action scenes. The film of this film finally also bears more similarity to the Adam West series than even to the earlier Tim Burton Batman, with cartoonish violence and silly plot twists.
The movie’s intro is totally bombastic, with over-the-top graphics and close-ups of Batman and Robin’s rubbery battle suits, including their rubber butts and crotches, not to mention fake six-pack abs and nipples stamped onto their fronts. There’s Bat/Robin bickering, “I want the car – chicks dig the car,” says Robin. “This is why Superman works alone,” Batman retorts (we chortle). The hockey team from hell plays with a diamond the size of your fist (Freeze needs a bunch of these, it seems, to complete his evil plan to freeze the world). Pamela Isley, working with mad scientist Jonathan Woodrue, has an attack of conscience when she overhears Woodrue creating superthug Bane out of a chemical called Venom to auction him off to global terrorist organizations, “Fellow maniacs – bidding begins!” Poison Ivy is created a la the Swamp Thing, and the flaky, oatmeal-ish tree hugger Isley becomes a seductress/eco-terrorist. “Come, Bane darling, we’ve got a plane to catch.” There’s a great clumsy vampy scene as an Afro-American bunny tries to seduce Mr Freeze (“C’mon, Freeze baby, let’s warm things up”). Fail. Interesting note – the song “Poison Ivy” is played big band style when Poison Ivy enters the charity auction. Nice. She does a slutty come-on to everyone in the room that has to be heard to be believed. Batman flashes his Batman AmEx card, “Never leave the cave without it.” Nice Standard Chartered Bank colours around the room. Lots of bad ice/cool puns, such as “cool party, ha ha ha…”, etc etc etc. Neon pink squatter punks try to beat up Mr Freeze. Poison Ivy: “It took God seven days to create paradise; I can do better.” Oooohhh… a little full of ourselves here, aren’t we?
And who is Bruce’s phony girlfriend, Julie Madison, played here by Elle Macpherson? Seems like they dug through the files for this one – Madison had been Batman’s first girlfriend from 1939-1941, appearing four issues after he did.
Interestingly, when the character of Mr Freeze was introduced in 1959 (then named Mr Zero) he was actually Batman’s first supervillain, as he’d previously just fought thugs and gangsters.