Movies: What did You Watch Last Night?

[Aldin]

Originally Posted by Hahma

Went to see Brave with the wife and kids today. Though the story was a little different than we expected, we all really liked it.

Coolness. I was impressed that...

Spoiler Alert!

...there was no genuine villain in the movie. The witch wasn't an evil witch. Even the bear was grateful to be released from his curse. Kinda cool.

~Aldin, bravely (yeah, I know - not very original)

[Hahma]

Yeah, I agree Aldin, that was certainly something I noticed as well. I thought the movie was well done and I enjoyed the story that it ended up being, more than I think I would have had it gone the way I had expected it to before seeing it.

[screwDriver]

Originally Posted by Aldin

Coolness. I was impressed that...

Spoiler Alert!

...there was no genuine villain in the movie. The witch wasn't an evil witch. Even the bear was grateful to be released from his curse. Kinda cool.

~Aldin, bravely (yeah, I know - not very original)

That is one reason why I loved Hayao Miyazaki's animes. They...

Spoiler Alert!

...either don't have real villains or the villains were given a chance at redemption. I believe between destroying evil and converting evil to good, the later is a better lesson for children.

[Oh Yeah! I'm Here]

Ted. The movie is hilarious, and you can tell it was written by Seth MacFarlane due to the sheer amount of references that movie has to offer.

[Tornado]

Spider-Man - Very good. Great cast.

[Hive Lord 1233]

True Grit.

Spoiler Alert!

Kind of a sad ending...

[Darth Vader]

I watched The Godfather and The Godfather Part II both within the last couple days. I've never been much of a fan of the so called "classic" movies, but those two movies are easily the two best I've ever seen. I'm getting around to Part III, but as I hear it is significantly weaker than the first two, I am not rushing to watch it.

[screwDriver]

I just saw The Dark Knight Rises last night. No, not from one of the links by the recent slew of bots here in Heroscapers. TDKR opened here yesterday.

So how was it? If you seen the first 2, you just have to watch this too. It's that great. Batman finally reached epic status in the Nolan's trilogy.

The story takes place 8 years after Harvey Dent's death (The Dark Knight). Bruce Wayne had gave up being The Batman, Gotham City was peaceful again. Commissioner Gordon has a bothered conscience, he couldn't let go of the fact that Batman was taking the blame for Harvey's death... watch The Dark Knight to understand if I lost you here. And Bruce wasn't exactly loving putting his Bat costume in hiding, he was in pain. And Wayne Enterprise felt that pain by becoming financially unstable. And then Bane comes in.

Acting-wise, Tom Hardy's Bane is not at the same level as Heath Ledger's The Joker. But, that does not mean he sucks, it was simply because Bane wasn't written to be great as the iconic Joker. He is bad @ss though and a deserved to be a part of this trilogy. Everyone played their part very well, just not as memorable as Ledger's The Joker. The film has a Batman meets Inception kind of feel, the pacing and the feel of the setting kept reminding me of Inception... least for me. And Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt joining the Batman cast made it easier for me to feel that way. But it doesn't necessarily mean it's bad.

The opening scene was just brilliant. It gives new meaning to hi-jacking a plane. And also reminds of the gravity-defying scene from Inception. The highly anticipated Bane and Batman duel was pretty good and I think I'm not spoiling it if I say it ends in the famous "breaking of Batman's back". I also enjoyed that Bane is not the Micheline Man-like muscleman from the comic book or the previous Batman film. I loved that his strength were natural and his using that mask was revealed. I also like the way his strength was shown, in some scenes, he simply just press somebody to death. And it doesn't seem like he was exerting any force at all.

There's a couple of twist. How big it is depends on how much about Batman you know. If you a big comic fan, you will see it coming. But not necessarily by a mile, while Nolan knows fans would see it, he doesn't put it on a silver platter. But for non-fans, that was a huge twist. Here's a clue to that twist...

Spoiler Alert!

...something to do with Ras Al Ghul, Liam Neeson's character from Batman Begins.

The second twist, some attention to details was all you need to see it. But I won't say much about it because I was so involve with the movie that I forgot about them and found myself choking so as not to shed a tear near the end.

The plot was deep but it's not new in Nolan's Batman trilogy. That's as much as I'm gonna say.

Catwoman was ok, although very different from the Michelle Pfeipper one. She is a likeable character. A true neutral who chooses sides according to her needs. But eventually, redemption came her way.

Gadgets, well Batman got his Bat plane, not the jet we often see in comic books or cartoon shows. This one's much better. There's also some improvement to his Batcycle, it doesn't turn corners or do U-turns like any motorcycles we know. Which was really cool. But I have to admit that I did forgot if it was the same way in The Dark Knight.

Nit-picking time. There's a bunch of 8-10 year old kids from an orphanage who seem to have faith in The Batman. It felt weird because The Batman was already labeled a fugitive and a murderer when they don't have any reasoning ability yet.

[chas]

1. John Carter again on DVD. Its not as good as I thought...its better! I enjoyed the commentary by the director and producers, and the historical feature on ERB and the history of the project. If you missed the truncated theatrical run, take a look. Many people I know have been pleasantly surprised. Congratulations to David Schwimmer for his excellent role as "Young Thark." And you get to see the Disney logo in red. Buy the DVD and support the movement for the making of the sequel!

2. and 3. Two samurai films about the scenarios featured in the new Richard Borg Samurai Battles game. These are Samurai Banners (1969, Toshiro Mifune) and the better known Heaven and Earth (1991). The former has excellent historical notes and character bios by Animeigo, the company that helped introduce Anime and other Japanese films in the US (see also Mifune's Shinsengumi), also from the Sixties, with the same level of notes. See the notes before you watch the flic!

[GromBloodboy]

TDKR. In Michigan. Theater 9 at the local theater. Jesus Christ......................... God Bless those who were there.

[Yodaking]

Saw TDKR last night as part of a marathon of the movies. Definitely recommended watching through Batman Begins again if you have not seen it in a while. I agree that the Bat Plane was much cooler then previous versions. Once I got to really see how it worked I was impressed. Very good movie overall even if The Dark Knight was still better. Don't want to say too much and ruin any thing so just go see it this weekend and we can discuss it some next week.

[Lord Pyre]

Batman at midnight. I dressed up as Riddler, my wife was Poison Ivy, my friend was Joker, and his girlfriend was Harley. Pretty awesome.


Oh yeah, and the movie. Only two words can describe it. MIND-BLOWING!!!!!