I suspect I will see all three 2022 MCU releases in the theater.
Iâm not sure my brain can handle the Multiverse of Madness on the big screen.
As an aside, I was today old when I found out that chimney crickets are a thing.
Of all of them thatâs the one Iâd most want to see on the big screen. Sam Raimi has way more visual flair than whoever is helming most of the MCU.
âThe Batmanâ is pretty decent. Obviously, the shadow of âThe Dark Knightâ looms large over any Batman movie, but this one had an interesting look and feel - a combination of âSevenâ and Netflixâs âDaredevilâ, especially in the way that Batman pummels his adversaries into next week with his fists and the directorâs preference for longer takes during fights. Theyâre not âJohn Wickâ long, but not a Marvelesque blizzard of cuts and camera angles.
Speaking of Seven (Spoilers)
The Riddler - excellently portrayed by Paul Dano - seems lifted almost entirely from âJohn Doeâ. Given the setting of an urban hellscape, washed with perpetual rain, it was impossible to ignore this element. The Riddler had an apartment filled with all his torture experiments, bookshelves full of incoherent ledgers, and he gives himself up to complete his message near the end.
Robert Smith Pattinson does a good job of being a brooding and eye-blacked - bordering on Emo - young Bruce Wayne in his early days of crime fighting. They spare us a rehash of his parentsâ murder and drop us into his current situation with little explanation. They rely on the audienceâs familiarity with the character and some smooth backfilling as we go to keep us up to date with where we are.
It is overly long, mostly due to the deliberately slow pacing. The non-Batman characters drift in and out of the plot - not in a clunky way - but in such a way as you forget about them and then they show up again. Colin Farrellâs Penguin is good, but this is mainly due to the amazing make-up; his peripheral role doesnât give him much time to do much true acting.
Itâs clearly pitched at being the start of a franchise (did we really need another reboot of Batman?), hence the breadth of peripheral characters who, presumably, will become more prominent in future episodes. They teased the next movieâs villain(s), of course, as this is de rigeur these days.
I will never complain about more Batman films.
Is Joel Schumacher still alive?
Long, boring and Pattinson sucks was my (admittedly in the minority) take.
I am tired of Batman flicks so perhaps that influenced how I saw the movie.
Paul Dano is a madman, and I loved him as the Riddler. I liked the detective/noir aspect of the movie. Glad I watched it at home because I needed a couple of breaks, when did intermissions in theaters go out of style?
I like Dano as an actor but the Riddler character (like so many other elements of the movie) just didnât work for me.
Itâs a crime thriller where the detective happens to be Batman.
CODA was excellent.
My wife and her twin sister are deaf. With a hearing aid my wife can hear quite a bit, but most music is lost on her. Her sister even with her hearing aid hears very little.
The movie was well written/performed and didnât try to capture every aspect of deaf life/culture but hit on some key ones while telling a story that stands on its own.
I watched it last night and enjoyed it. However be warned there is an invented romantic subplot that will make you want to throw things at your big screen tv so make sure there are no heavy objects within reach before starting to watch.
Yes, it is Ian Fleming and there are various Bond-related references in the film.
My wife had the same reaction. Why were they wasting time on that when the mechanics of the plan are much more interesting?
To make it appealing to women. Duh!
Colin Firth is just entirely too English charming to be left unsupervised by his wife?
Story previously told in 1956 movie The Man Who Never Was with Clifton Webb and Gloria Grahame. Any movie with Grahame is worth watching.
This is simultaneously the best and the worst thing on the internet.
I saw that. Loved it.
âMay the judgement not be too heavy upon usâ T.S. Eliot