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Title: Batman Begins |
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Release Date: 2005 |
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Nationality and Language: USA/English |
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Running time: 140 min |
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Distributor
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Director; Writer: Christopher Nolan |
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Producer: |
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Cast: |
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Technical: full widescreen |
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Relevance to DOASKDOTELL site: heroes |
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Batman Begins (2005, Warner Bros./DC Comics, dir. Christopher
Nolan, 140 min, PG-13) was previewed with a ten-minute trailer the last night
of the Smallville
2004-2005 season. I have long suggested that TheWB convert Smallville to a movie franchise for The Dark Knight (2008, Warner Bros. / Legendary / DC Comics, dir. Christopher Nolan, 152 min, PG-13) is a main-course sequel. Christian Bale, now ripened, is Wayne, and the late Heath Ledger is the playing card Joker, sometimes in drag, and Aaron Eckhardt as the two-face DA gets his face split, literally. The script rather compares the Joker's rants to those of Osama bin Laden. Blogger review. Sky High
(2005, Touchstone/Walt Disney/Buena Vista, dir. Mike Mitchell, PG, 102 min)
is a spectacular full widescreen fantasy about Super Kids, who are indeed
becoming a kind of staple now. We live in a world where super parents,
according to the laws of Mendelian
genetics, have certain mathematical probabilities of having super kids. Well,
the kids are bussed to a private school in the sky
(the bus flies), where there is a kind of high-tech Hogarts school for the gifted. Well, there is
social Darwinism at work right away, as the Kids are divided into Super
Heroes and, get this, Hero Support (aka Sidekicks)
depending on whether they have Powers. (Remember that Smallville episode where When I was in kindergarten, the teacher divided us into “brownies and elves.” I was a brownie, so I know the feeling of being in the subordinate part of the hierarchy. This kind of attitude goes back to the ideas of British philosopher Herbert Spencer (not just Charles Darwin). The Super Kids in the more “dramatic” shows (like Clark, Lana, Chloe, Ephram, Seth, Shawn, Justin, Bobby, Martin) seem more compelling to me. Nicholas Nickleby: At the end
of 2002, The tender bond between Nickleby and Smike as they go on their adventures becomes the locus of the story., Smike is partially crippled, and this may be due to his mistreatment by Squeers (who has almost worked him to death as “compensation” for taking care of him). The two characters get theater jobs acting in Romeo and Juliet, where Smike will play a sidekick and deliver a one-liner. But quickly Nicholas gets drawn back into family business and intrigues, which these 19th Century English novels are so good at conjuring up. Smike seems to get stronger and more self-confident with his new freedom and loving care from Nicholas, before a tragedy comes, and it seems as though he really wants to wear the comedy ring. Some critics are saying that Hunnam’s delivery is a bit bland and monochromatic, a foil for introducing all the other rich characters (many of them “bad” but still all too human), as Hunnam reinforces his own humanity by putting family first or at least creating a new one. That is, the film would be more lively with a bit of “Bad Clark is back!” But I found him to be more a down-to-earth version of a young male character role model that we used to see only in the comics. Oliver Twist (2005,
TriStar/Sony Classics/RP, dir. Roman Polanski, 140
min, PG-13) is a very artsy period rendition of Charles Dicken’s most famous novel. Filled with parallels
to Dickens’s own life and other meanings, its most important performances are
those of Barney Clark as the 10-year-old orphan Oliver Twist, and Ben
Kingsley as Fagin, who runs the household of runaway boys as pickpockets (and
as an unfortunate parody of the Jewish businessman). It’s a bit hard to get
in to because the story and speech seem archaic, something English literature
teachers love, or perhaps high school teachers who would hand out video work
sheets for this movie (though it is too long for one class, even
extended)—and there is a great deal of detail to pick up in this film. The
most grotesque villain is Sykes (Jamie Foreman) who hangs himself
accidentally at the end, with the help of his vicious white dog, who
literally turns him in. The film contains rather flat-looking matte paintings
of old Hero; House of Flying Daggers; Curse of the Golden Flower: moved Oliver! (1968, Another literary paradigm that is a bit parallel to Harry
Potter is Lemony Snicket
and the real-life author Daniel Handler (his “alter ego”). The movie is Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (Paramount/Nickelodeon/Dreamworks, PG, 97 min, dir. Brad Silberling). (The component
books are “The Bad Beginning,” “The Reptile Room,” and “The Wide Window,” not
to be confused with Secret Window. The screenplay adaptation was
finished by Robert Gordon. First, the film evokes a parallel universe look of
matte painting with steam trains and Nash-like sedans with tape decks, as
well as genuine fantasyland (“Baltimore Is Missing” very much in this
film)—so why isn’t it in full 2.3:1 Widescreen? Well, most kids’ movies
aren’t, and when I saw it at a Regal Cinema (on the supersized
screen) the holiday audience was filled with grade schoolers. But the tale of three orphaned
children, the Baudelaires,
escaping the evil guardian Count Olaf (Jim Carrey –
“Hello! Hello! Hello!” – sorry, Jim Carrey doesn’t look like himself in this
movie, and he doesn’t get to show his butt). Now Olaf
is after their parents’ money, and he will even marry 14-year-old Violet
Baudelaire (Emily Browning) in a play to get at it. (This, in these days of
debating family values, whether a “marriage” like that stands up (and this is
a straight marriage) is a good one for the lawyers.) Now, this whole fantasy
works because 14-year-old actor Liam Aiken (no relation apparently to Clay
Aiken) carries the whole story. He is like a miniature superman, without the
gee-whiz stuff, and it seems to come out of ethical or moral power. We can
only assume that Silberling
has studied the WB Smallville
episodes and realized how much better Everyman Jude Law plays Lemony Snicket (voice), reading; Meryl Streep is Aunt Josephine, and Dustin Hoffman is uncredited as the critic. On An animated version of Hercules
(1998, Walt Disney, dir. Rom Clements and John Musker, 02 min) makes Hercules more like a A 2005 film that seems to articulate “Smallville” concepts in the movies is the Marvel
comics film Fantastic Four
(Fantastic 4) (20th Century Fox, dir. Tim Story, story by Mark
Frost and Michael France, 106 min, PG-13). The concept is simple. Four normal
humans make a space shuttle voyage to measure a solar storm. It zaps them
early on, and when they come back to earth they all have “powers.” Well, sort
of. Let’s back up a minute. First of all, the four report to a mad scientist
Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon), who wants to use the experiment to get
powers himself. He partially “succeeds,”
his body becoming “infected” and gradually become infiltrated by streaking
metalloid tumors. (Folks, get out your chemistry texts.) Mr. McMahon was a
law student who had always wanted to get into acting, and got a big chance
with this move. In a sense, his career parallels that of my character “Tobey” in a couple of my screen plays. But actually, Reed
Richards, the good scientist from MIT and nominally the informal technical
team leader of the group is actually the “Tobey” character
in the movie. Played by Welsh actor Ioan
Gruffudd, he looks at bit
over-fashioned (Fab 5,
maybe), but he has a dedicated girl friend Sue Storm (Jessica Alba). Now Reed
will become Mr. Fantastic, as he can stretch any part of his body to
infinity. In a couple scenes, the cinematography shows his light arm hair
moving out with the stretch, as if his body still has finite mass and size.
The stretching becomes an exercise in algebraic topology, and homology. Now
Sue becomes the Invisible Woman, and is a bit like the character Sheila (Tobey’s girl friend in my screenplays), to the point that
Reed will propose to her at the end. Then there is Michael Chiklis, a balding, hairy
middle aged character whose body suddenly turns to stone, as The Thing. It is
as if he suddenly had neurofibromatosis. Chris Evans (now 24, from Cellular) plays Sue’s brother Johnny. Chris, with
youthful, perfect face but hairy chest and limbs (there is one particularly
provocative pose where he is in his skivvies and looks like a “real” male
model – yes, Chris looks Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007, 20th Century Fox, dir. Tim Story, 90 min, PG, Canada), that is, FF II, is a real movieated Marvel comic book. There is this galactic cloud monster (I personally like the idea of using a brown dwarf as the "monster") that can devour planets, with a couple of apprentices, one who looks like Darth Vader, and then the Silver Surfer, who glides through space like a kid on a sidewalk surfboard. His body is surfaced "thmooth" with aluminum paint, it seems. The Human Torch has problems with accidental power exchanges with the other teammates. But Chris Evans keeps his disco-pretty face and hairy chest, totally impervious to fire. There's some pretty fantastic shots of the Thames area in London (it gets drained by one of the Surfer's sinkholes) and Shanghai. In the end, Sue and Reed have a republican marriage, with the most abbreviated of "I do" ceremonies. The Torch will stay free and single. This movie is not so much about heroes as it is about extreme sports. Shaun White ought to appear. X-Men (2000, dir. Bryan Singer); X2: X-Men United
(2003, ditto) X-Men: The Last Stand (2006, all films 20th
Century Fox, dir. Brett Ratner
(“X3”) Franchise, based on Marvel Comics and characters. I saw the
first two of these films when they came out and they all deal with new
mutants coming to their Academy and with miscreant mutants, so it’s more
productive to focus on the most recent film, with a similar story, to make
the basic points. Patrick Stewart, the bald British actor whom I think could
play me, is the good Professor Xavier, who may come to his demise in this
movie; Ian McKellan plays
Magneto, and reassures us that senior citizens can have super powers (he
seems a bit like Teabring
in Da Vinci
Code). Hugh Jackman
is the hirsute Wolverine, and James Marsden is
Cyclops, who will come to another demise at the hand of Ororo (Halle Berry) at
what looks like a lake in the Cascade Range that I may have visited (along US
2 in Washington) or it may be a similar location in British Columbia. But all
of this skims across the obvious political point: the Mutants are “different”
and they are perceived as threats to normal people. Read that, if you will,
“homosexuals,” at least in the mentality of the 50s, and especially take into
consideration arguments about homosexuality and biology. The pretext here
offers another opportunity, for all the major mutants to have heterosexual
love lives whenever they want to and propagate “their own kind.” So perhaps
they are even a paradigm for the Jews in Of course, however, the mutants really are different, and have physical powers that normal people don’t have. The powers are extreme, but that is beside another political point: that Earth is very lucky that homo sapiens are so genetically coherent (and that is probably because of a few spectacular volcanic eruptions aeons ago). All of this brings up still another point: this is a very safe kind of entertainment to budget and make, however much it costs. There is stylized violence and assassination, but it could not possibly be replicated. The action sequences, however entertaining, are totally meaningless in terms of anything that can really happen, so there is almost no possibility of anything is enticed. In my own screenwriting attempts, I stage scenarios, some of them dangerous and objectionable to some, that are frightening because, in general, they could really happen, although improbably. That’s a lot more interesting to me, and more dangerous. A
few of the younger kids, Iceman (Shawn Ashmore),
flying angel Warren (Ben Foster) and John Allerdyce/Pyro
(“Tadpole” Aaron Stanford) act their roles as convincing characters,
reminding us more of the atmosphere created by programs like Smallville. (Although
Foster and Stanford look a lot alike here,) There are discussions of the
moral responsibilities of using one’s gifts (much like Superman Returns (2006, Warner Brothers/Bad Hat/Legendary/DC Comics, dir. Bryan Singer, 154 min, PG-13). Okay, I’m cheating by putting the entry on this file a bit early, and I’ll try to see in June 28. Brandon
Routh, who plays Clark,
Kevin Spacey, who plays Lex
Luthor (and shaved his
head for the role), and Bryan Singer, who at 40 looks more like he is 20,
appeared on CNN “Larry King Live” June 23. Again, it raises the question of what an indie Smallville movie would look like. But
let the blockbuster arrive. The
film opens with Lex Luthor at his mother’s bedside,
force-signing her will as she takes her last breath. (Lex
will not allow a "John Knowles" "Reading of the Will.") Lex takes it all. Then we cover
the ground quickly. We see a flashback reprise of teenage Clark (Stephan
Bender), learning to fly in Australian ( Soon
we learn Lex’s real plan,
it to grow another continent in the Here
is the place to mention the personal stuff. His beloved was That
all brings us to the style of the movie, which is comic-book, of course, and
“safe” socially. The first couple of seasons of “Smallville” often developed the dramatic
possibilities of a developmentally advanced but still teenage My own screenplay and novel experiments play with the borderline sci-fi idea. I liked to have a few “good” characters (all characters are my own), with one or two of them having potentially supernatural abilities, against a background of social and political issues brewing. In one case, I have the theme of fighting terrorism and rebuilding the WTC as events unfold; in another I have my own idea of “close encounters” where one character may have the opportunity to become an angel or to marry and have a “normal family life,” with a background political crisis created by an epidemic that might have an extraterrestrial origin. But rather than a lot of fast-motion activity, I like to probe the dramatic (and sometimes political, social and moral) possibilities, and put characters together in various combinations in a train of scenes, almost as in a stage play. That’s more like the indie market than a film like this. (As I say, the original Smallville concept, if a movie, would fit the “Warner Independent Pictures” concept well.) I
don’t have “villains” like Lex,
though. Instead I have non-competitive people who stumble into trouble by
self-indulgence while refusing conventional socialization when adaptive
living must come before creativity. Pay your dues! Networks report that
the new Superman series has to leave out “American values” in its “truth and
justice” platitudes and epigrams, to sell around the world. I’d like to see
the majors be able to give this kind of story real substance. Nevertheless,
WB proudly displays its The original Superman movie franchise comprised: Superman
(1978, Warner Bros., dir. Richard Donner) starts
with Christopher Reeve as the adult Man of Steel and Jeff East as the teenage
Superman II (1980, Warner Bros., dir. Richard Lester) continues the saga as three villains come back from the remnants of Krypton. Superman
III (1983, Warner Bros., dir. Richard Lester) has kryptonite splitting
Superman IV (1987, Warner Bros. Sidney J. Furie) has Lex Luthor invention, a Terminator-like “gray” called Nuclear Man There
was also a UK TV syndication Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of
Superman (1993, Hollywoodland (2006, Focus/Miramax,
dir. Allen Coulter, wr.
Paul Berbaum, 126 min,
R). Or call it Tinseltown.
Disney’s restructured Miramax was a production company for this noir period
piece mystery; shot flat with a lot of close-ups, it has the air of
Hitchcock. And there is murder. In the 1950s, TV’s Superman actor
George Reeves (Ben Affleck) died in his bedroom of a single gunshot room. The
LAPD closed the case quickly. Reeves’s mother hires
agile private detective Louis Simo
(Adrien Brody) at $50 a
day to investigate the death. The movie is layered, and unfolds in time
slices, with many retrospects
and some replays of the shooting under different theories. In that sense, the
movie is a film noir- like Rashomon.
There are the usual suspects, with one of the most compelling being mistress
Toni Mannix (Diane Lane),
wife of an Brody is at once ascetic and sumptuous, a lean little man that you admire. His surface animal “manliness” is back to some extent, compared to how he was made up for King Kong. Affleck, on the other hand, looks like an over-the-hill star, his face cracking, his hairline starting to widow, his body mushy in the middle, looking thick even when he puts on the Superman suit for black-and-white TV. (A Tom Welling or Brandon Routh, he is not in this film.) He gets a shot of the S in color, before the show is canceled, and he wants to become a director in New York. Why isn’t playing a comic book hero enough for a life, even in the late innings? Because now he is no hero. There are interesting replays of the 50s TV series, and even a preview of From Here to Eternity, with Affleck dubbed in. Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman
(2006, Warner Independent Pictures/TheWB/DC
Comics/Bad Hat Harry, dir. Kevin Burns, 120 min, sug. PG) is a documentary of the Superman
franchise, starting with the comic book series invented by two young men in
Cleveland in the 30s, through the movies and TV series in the 50s with George
Reeves, to the main four-film franchise (and also Superboy), eventually leading to the remake
Superman Returns in 2006. The main movie sequence in the 70s depicted Krypton
as a kind of Triton, but Smallville
and Metropolis were always the places on earth. The Smallville series was a tremendous hit as
it came out after 9/11, and presented The Incredibles (2004, Walt Disney/Pixar, dir. Brad Bird, 115 min, PG). This movie was the subject of a recent sermon, “do we need saviors?” In animation, even with the lifelike Pixar style and Cinemascope, the characters are not as convincing as they are in some of the movies above or in some similar television series discussed. Yet, the movie raises a surprising list of issues as it traverses its plot, in however stylized a fashion. Bob and Helen Parr get moved around in witness protection programs after saving the world. Bob tries to live a normal suburban family life as an insurance claims adjuster (I think loss prevention specialist would have been more interesting). His three kids are sky-high, like above, even the youngest, who isn’t even potty trained yet. (Hope he’s not in extended day at school.) But he gets drawn into one more assignment, in which he will be outed. Should be people have to live covert lives in order to protect others? That’s one disturbing question. (The myspace.com controversy today raises questions about amateurs drawing global attention to themselves.) There is one line to the effect if everyone were a hero, then no one would be. At the end, the old nemesis comes back into the city in graphic fashion. Jumper (2008, 20th Century Fox / Regency, dir. Doug Liman, 90 min, PG-13, Canada) Here is another comic book style hero, although I didn't see any mention of comics. Hayden Christiansen plays David Rice, a "Jumper" who has the gift of instant teleportation (not even Clark Kent does that). He first uses it after falling into a frozen pond in Michigan to retrieve a toy that a kid had thrown away. We learn only later that his mother (Diane Lane) had known he was "one of them" at age 5. It seems as though Jumpers are chased by "paladins," of which Roland (Samuel L. Jackson, hair dyed) is one. David is charming and charismatic enough, but he gets started with untraceable bank robbery (but Clark robbed ATM's at the start of Smallville's Season 3); but unlike Clark, Jake 2.0, or Kyle XY or similar heroes (including those in the NBC series), he doesn't seem to care about helping people. Max Thieriot plays David at 15, but one wonders if Hayden really could have played that age; the change is not that great. The movie turns into an exercise in showing off special effects. I suspect there will be a franchise of these movies. Remeber the 1981 saying "she's a looker"? Now it's "He's a jumper." Iron Man (2008, Paramount / Marvel / Lionsgate, dir. Jon Favreau, 126 min, PG-13). Well, Iron Man (along with slightly older actor Robert Dowbey Jr.) has to relinquish his chest hair to exist as a character. That's because some sort of magnetizer and pacemaker is drilled right on to the chakra of his chest, after his body is riddled with shrapnel after an explosion in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban. He we have a curious mixture of comic book and modern politics. Tony Stark (Downey) has inherited and built a defense fortune with the air force, but when he is trapped in an Al Qaeda cave, he has to use a real Mossolov iron foundry to blow himself out into the desert. He soon gets disenchanted with the fact that his weapons can kill our own troops, and concentrates on his man-can-fly armor, that combines Superman with Fantastic 4 firefly. There is a comment that no one can be found in the Tora Bora mountains. I don't believe it. From the postlude after the closing credits, we know there will be Iron Man II soon. Terrence Howard ("Hustle & Flow") is effective as the high-pitched Air Force liaison at parties, and Jeff Bridges is done up baldy as Obadiah. Did anyone notice that Stark is also the name of the alter-ego in Stephen King's "The Dark Half"? Watchmen (2009, Warner Brothers / Paramount / Legendary, dir. Zack Snyder, 160 min) is a parallel universe view of the Cold War with unusual superheroes like Dr. Manhattan. Blogger. Hancock (2008, Columbia, dir. Peter Berg, 94 min, PG-13). Here Will Smith plays a 3000 year old superman who files, with powers, and a companion (Charlize Theron), rather like vampires. Blogger.
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Related: Harry Potter movies The Dark Half (Smallville, One Tree Hill, The Days, Everwood, Jack and Bobby, Seventh Heaven, The O.C., The 4400, Queer as Folk, Jake 2.0, Blue’s Clues |
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