http://existentialistgamer.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/madagascar-2/

Anyway, awesome movie. If simply just for the Pencil Trick.

Only adding to the layers of dissonance is the fact that while Wayne’s anti-crime fervor masks a conflicted mess of motivations (revenge for his parents, love for Rachel, the ‘greater good’ that drives the Dent thing, the ‘any means necessary’ of the stupid cell phone thing, etc etc), Joker’s haphazard approach masks a single central purpose: to fuck with the Bat. He builds up power so that he can go to war with Batman; he wants to burn Gotham because Batman wants to save it; he wants to prove people are evil because Batman wants them to be good. As was hinted at the end of the last movie, Joker’s entire existence is a reaction against Batman’s. I’m a total sucker for that mythic angle and I feel like the dissonance in his depiction is an intentional way to reinforce that.

On the other hand, I’ll agree the Dent thing was telegraphed a little too insistently. And the aforementioned stupid cell phone thing was utterly contrived. But at the end of the day, nothing in Dark Knight could even begin to compare to the colossal stupidity of “microwave the city to boil the water to burst the pipes to release the gas to make people hallucinate to make everyone kill each other BUT at least they’ll suffer no ill effects from being MICROWAVED, amirite???”

Spoiler alert?

Anyway, I guess this means I’ll have to go see in Bruges. Damn you Tom Francis, with your good reviews!

My friend’s ‘a lot to live up to’ was actually in reference to my passing along a link to the Watchmen trailer, so now it’s been mentioned I may as well comment on that. There’s a lot that’s bad about the original. There are a lot of changes so far that make me uneasy. There’s just no way it could be any good. But! If you look at the trailer, there are lots of faithful touches and stylistic decisions which would have been much easier to throw away. It makes me think that the people who are making the film actually like the source and want to remain faithful to it. My prognostication: It won’t be any good, but it might still be great.

Chris: For me, WALL-E’s Message really refined itself on second and subsequent viewings. On first sight it presents as OMGLOLufatties, but even after I’d gone in expecting that and seen it, on second viewing it suddenly flipped in my mind to something like ‘do real things’ or ‘think about what’s important’. I don’t know why my reading changed. I wasn’t trying to ‘fix’ anything in my head – I was fine with the film – but it has made it much more pleasant nonetheless. On the other hand, Message or no, if the joyful, wistful romance doesn’t grab your stony heart there’s no reason to watch the rest. It is truly the heart of the film.

I agree that Ratatouille lacks a certain something. I enjoyed watching it, but haven’t since. It’s a pity, since there’s nothing wrong with it and I think Anton Ego’s one of the more enjoyable characters in Pixar’s history.

Honestly, Pixar’s last couple films look amazing but haven’t captured me much otherwise. I thought the one with the rat chef was boring (didn’t even finish watching it) and the WALL-E story was cute but I never gave it a second thought after leaving the theater, not even about the incredibly subtle and easy to miss message that we’re overweight and lazy (O RLY?!?!?!). The Incredibles is still my favorite by far.

I liked Dark Knight a lot and would even go see it again in the theater if it wasn’t so long. I think they could have saved Two Face’s revenge for the next movie.

I don’t remember a whole lot about the second Futurama movie, which I guess isn’t much of an endorsement. Definitely the first was superior and had a much more enjoyable story.

I picked up the ‘man with a plan’ dissonance as well, and the other thing that bugged me is that at least twice the Joker tells Batman that he’s not trying to prove that people are inherently evil, he just ‘wants to see everything burn’. The former is obviously true and the latter false, otherwise he’d just be bombing places instead of unsing his psychic powers of prediction to force people into doing evil. Now obviously, nearly everything he says to anyone in the film is a lie or misinformation, but in these scenes he’s played and filmed as if he’s really trying to be understood. He seems almost indignant at the misunderstanding, and not in a ‘doth protest too much’ way.

I was laughing a little during the last scene. ‘I’m glad you asked what’s going on son, because it oh-so-conveniently lets you stand in for Joe Sixpack who’s already forgotten the other six times we philosophised about the dark knight/white knight dichotomy and Gotham’s need for a symbol of hope. You see, we just discussed in front of you how we were going to have Batman take the fall for Dent’s murders because we needed Dent as a symbol. Then we watched Batman running away from my police force, taking the fall for Dent’s murders because we need Dent as a symbol. And now you’ve asked why the police are chasing Batman. The police are chasing Batman because we’re going to have Batman take the fall because we need Dent as a symbol. Do you understand son?’

Anyway, I criticise because I love, well, like. Oldman’s Gordon and Morgan’s Fox continue to be marvelous, the ‘blackmail Batman’ and ‘billionaire absconds with ballet troupe’ scenes are hilarious, and the Joker is if not consistent or properly written then at least inventively monstrous.

I liked the Dark Knight, and I was really taken with the idea of living in a city where a guy forces the population to get involved in big ethical questions, a kind of macro (if that’s the right word) version of the Saw movie baddie.

I didn’t like the original, I thought it was a bit laboured with all the umming and aahing about becoming a vigilante, and then the ridiculousness of being trained in the mountains, with swords and everything. I think Year One worked better as a slow movement from learning judo, wearing a scar as a disguise and taking it to the streets, then going full on Batman mental and taking on the mob.

Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow is still my favourite movie supervillain of recent times.

I’m still waiting for my copy of BBB to arrive and I’m not sure why. Please let it have fewer musical numbers!

Even the fact I didn’t have to pay didn’t help.