Kevin's Watch

Saw it today with Lucimay and Sorus. I actually haven't seen Batman Begins yet... I really liked it alot. I thought the CGI on two face was bad as well. The tendons in the cheek were very distracting. I also thought they could have used a better costumer and hairdresser for Maggie Gyllenhall. She looked frumpy through the whole thing. Ledger was definitely amazing.

Maggie Gyllenhall was completely miscast. She's simply not a leading lady.

Agree about the CGI.

I didn't think Maggie was leading the film, myself, and for my tastes she beats Katie Holmes any day.

On second watch, I found Two Face's makeup not so bad, especially when from an angle or seeing the eyeball move around, but aye--Jenn has the right word: tendons. That's what stuck out for me.

I saw the second viewing with a packed house, which really upped the emotion for me (I love full houses, as long as there's not a bunch of idiot kids in the front row who don't realize they're going to be pregnant or working at Wal-Mart in the next couple years).

Romantic lead. Whatever. She's not the least bit attractive to me, and she's not much of an actress.

Cail wrote:Romantic lead. Whatever. She's not the least bit attractive to me, and she's not much of an actress.

Have you seen her in The Secretary? She sold me in that film.

I preferred her to Katie Holmes, who - for me - has 0 on-screen charisma.

Katie Holmes has less screen presence than Keanu Reeves. Seriously, she's a stiff.

Montresor wrote:

Cail wrote:Romantic lead. Whatever. She's not the least bit attractive to me, and she's not much of an actress.

Have you seen her in The Secretary? She sold me in that film.

I preferred her to Katie Holmes, who - for me - has 0 on-screen charisma.

HAH! i was just about to ask have you seen secretary!!!

I thought Maggie was great in Stranger than Fiction, but horrible in this movie.

She certainly didn't sell the love triangle part. And seriously I don't know what the costumer/hairdresser people were thinking. I'm no fashionista and even I wouldn't consent to wear those outfits or my hair like that. Especially to a high society fundraiser on the arm of the guest of honor. Bah. They should have been fired. Right away.

We in dissin Maggie mode? OK, I'll contribute. She had terrible dark circles under her eyes as if she was still suffering from the first Batman flick where no one could wear makeup.

Yeah, Maggie was weak in this one. I don't think they'll be bringing her back for another Batman.

dANdeLION wrote:Yeah, Maggie was weak in this one. I don't think they'll be bringing her back for another Batman.

Spoiler

Now, how do you guess that?

OK, we finally saw it two nights ago.

Quick review: Lots of potential, average result.

Longer review:
The editing really killed this movie. I'm pretty good at following storylines, and I only understood 1/2 to 3/4 of what was going on. My wife didn't understand nearly that much of the plot.

Spoiler

In fact, it barely registered that Gordon was supposed to be dead, and there was no time to absorb that fact. There was no emotional relief to see him alive again, because it didn't really register that he was supposed to be dead.

In fact, my wife never "got" that he was "dead", until after the movie and I pointed it out.

While the movie overall should have been longer (by 30 to 45 minutes) to flesh out the story and characters more, the last 1/2 hour seemed to drag. It's like they realized, "Hey, we cut so much from the rest of the movie, that we're under our target running time now! Let's just throw the rest in without editing out the fluff, and go home early!"

I loved the choices everyone had to make. As a theme, that's what made this movie great.

Ledger's performance was decent, but not oscar-worthy. While darker than Nicholson's (how often does that happen?), it's not necessarily better; just different. Seeing it definitely put me in a mood to watch the Tim Burton version, though (sadly, it's all checked out at the local Hollywood).

The best performance, in fact, came from Aaron Eckhart. I might be biased, though, as I've enjoyed everything I've seen him in, and think he's one of the best under-appreciated actors in films today.

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As far as his conversion to the villain went, I know others here have complained that it felt forced. I didn't see it that way (with one exception). The key is, he wasn't really changing from the "Good Guy" to the "Bad Guy". He was changing from someone who stood for Law and Order to someone who left things up to chance; hence, his quirk with the coin. Even letting some of the villains go because that's how chance worked out.

The exception is Gordon's family. I didn't understand his insistence on punishing them, except as a convenient plot point.

One minor gripe: the Joker seemed to have limitless power. If he could imagine something, he could do it. It just didn't feel plausible. I mean,

Spoiler

how could you load hundreds of barrel drums onto public ferries without anyone noticing?

That's only one example, of course, but you get the idea. It seemed the Joker didn't have to worry about how hard something was to do; he could just do anything he imagined.

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And I laughed my head off when he was blowing up the hospital, and the trigger mechanism failed

All in all, I'm hoping for a re-cut version on DVD that does more development. Otherwise, it's still a good movie, but falls short of its emotional potential.

Rigel wrote: I loved the choices everyone had to make. As a theme, that's what made this movie great.

Yes, definitely.

Rigel wrote:The best performance, in fact, came from Aaron Eckhart.

Yeah, I thought the same thing.

Rigel wrote:All in all, I'm hoping for a re-cut version on DVD that does more development.

I'm actually hoping for an un-cut dvd version.

Too long.

bleh. aaron eckhart. he was okay. and he was no where NEAR ledger as far as acting goes. to me anyway. i thought leger was brilliant.

i like maggie but i can't argue with crappy hair and dark circles.

Lucimay wrote:
i like maggie but i can't argue with crappy hair and dark circles.

The funny thing is, I don't even remember her hair in that film. Can't have bothered me, at least.

Girls notice that sort of thing.

Spoiler

During the scene when the Joker crashes the society party and tells Maggie that she's "Beautiful" I was thinking, gah. Her dress blended in to the background, her hair looked stupid and her makeup was bland. I was thinking, "No she doesn't look beautiful, she looks meh. Pretty much every other society tart in the room looked WAY better than Maggie. She's not a traditional hollywood looker but she does have bod and potential and they could have really seriously done a much much better job at making her stand out. Again, probably a girl thing.

As far as Gordon,

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Did you miss the whole scene where they went to his house and told his wife and the son was listening in even though the wife told him to go play? I thought he was a goner for good.

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Having been a comic reader for decades, I knew Gordon wasn't dead. No possibility. In fact, I was surprised by all the people in the audience who were gasping in surprise and giving little sobs of sorrow. I've seldom heard as many as I did when he "died," and I was surprised that so many thought it was real.

And yeah, her hideous hair stood out for me, too. But I think it was an attempt to look more like Katie. She did do some of the facial expressions well, so it wasn't so jarring going from one actress to another.

Every scene Maggie was in I kept thinking something was off....I liked Katie Holmes much better. And yeah, they kept dressing her like she was the other women's grandmother or something; it was really weird.