Archives for the Month of July 2008 on media addict
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight is a blast. Great acting, amazing effects, and a much better plot make this a big improvement over Batman Begins. While not perfect, it comes about as close as a comic book movie can.
Much like its predecessor, The Dark Knight is a rather talky movie. For the most part however, this is not a hindrance to the film's pace. Batman Begins takes a fairly philosophic stance at times and some of the soliloquies can be overwrought. The Dark Knight does a much better job of reigning in the dialog and when the characters, especially The Joker, do start filibustering it is more often fascinating than boring.
Speaking of The Joker, he is easily one of the best characters in movie history. Creepy, funny, and sinister, you can't take your eyes off him whenever he's on the screen. Heath Ledger's performance is perfect and combined with excellent writing makes for a fantastic experience. The rest of the cast holds their own as well in spite of having to work in Ledger's shadow.
If I have one criticism of The Dark Knight it is that it could have been tightened up a little bit. At around 2 hours & 30 minutes the plot is very broad and seems to go on and on at times. I think things could have been simplified a little bit, or perhaps some of the minutiae removed to allow for a bit more depth. This is a minor criticism, but I felt that the movie lost steam toward the end. In The Dark Knight's defense however, the first two-thirds are so strong that it really has nowhere to go but down.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed The Dark Knight. I am a big Christoper Nolan fan and his extensive use of in-camera effects and excellent cinematography create fantastic atmosphere. Easily one of the top three comic book movies I have seen. Can't wait to see it again. 4.5/5
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Hellboy II: The Golden Army joins Indian Jones 4 as one of the more disappointing movies of the year so far. I liked the first Hellboy for its mix of interesting characters, solid action and occasional humor. The sequel however, changes so much of what made the original good that even a few high points couldn't bring me to like Helboy II.
I have two primary criticisms of Hellboy II: the forced humor and the plot. The first Hellboy relied on character interplay and some interesting situations to introduce humor into the story. Hellboy II on the other hand blatantly tries to crowbar in jokey moments and bad gags that don't tonally fit with the rest of the movie. The original Hellboy's story was cheesy; but at the same it time had fun with itself, wasn't ridiculously complicated and actually had an interesting message to it. Hellboy II ups the action and complicates the plot to the point of nausea. The additions of unnecessary new characters along with sappy melodrama quickly turn the film into a bloated mess. Much of the suspense of the original film came from the characters being separated from one another. Here everyone is constantly together and it waters down the whole experience.
By the end of Hellboy II any hope of enjoying the movie is brought to a halt when two plot points occur to resolve the conflict which are beyond maddening. Moments like these are infuriating because they perfectly demonstrate a lack of effort by the writers and show how blatantly overwrought the story really was. Hellboy II is a big step backwards for Guillermo Del Toro, especially following the excellent Pan's Labyrinth. 2/5