The Films You Watched Thread VI: The Undiscovered Movie

[Dogg Thang]

I watched The Batman last night. I should note right away that I think I have hit a point where I can safely say I’m not a massive Batman fan so that would have course influence how I see any Batman movie. This one was interesting. I didn’t think any Batman film has any business being this long and I still don’t believe it does. I don’t know why some films these days are so unnecessarily long - no film costs any more, perhaps? That would have been a limiting factor in the past. Anyway, it was too long.

I also found it unintentionally hilarious. The opening monologue had me in stitches with how seriously it took itself. I imagined sitting in a dark room as a teenager, listening to the Cure and then putting on this movie for the 100th time. It was so funny how po-faced it was. And it wasn’t even that Batman spoke like emo Batman in this one. It’s that everyone spoke like Batman. Gordon was all low and grumbly and sounded like he had never cracked a smile in his life. Anyway, there were so many laugh out loud moments.

And yet… I kind of love that they just went for that. They were sincere about it. No self-awareness. No winks to camera on how silly it all was. They wallowed in it. And I actually think I would have adored that when I was younger. I probably would have loved this film. So I have a lot of respect for them doing that.

And with that, I think they made it look fantastic and totally captured that vibe. The visuals and some of the sound too were fantastic.

But the story felt so typical to me. In ways it reminded me of The Dark Knight in that it was a crime film and the only weird element was some dude in a bat suit for some reason. I don’t know if they got any real mileage out of the villains they chose. They just made them into regular Joes but assigned Batman villain names to them. The opening did have a pretty cool looking gang with face paint and it reminded me of The Warriors but they didn’t seem to lean into that world after that one moment. So the story felt typical Batman, which made the length harder to take.

But look! It gave me lots to write about so that’s good.

[prinnysquad]

Sounds like you really love it, but you’re trying desperately to find it too po-faced for your tastes

[Dogg Thang]

Sounds like you really love it, but you’re trying desperately to find it too po-faced for your tastes

You don't know me! Only Morrissey truly understands me! You're not my mom!

[prinnysquad]

Ready Player One

I enjoyed all the nerd references, especially the bit at the end with the Japanese influence. On the whole, though, I found it a bit of a trudge to get through this. It’s a film that mistakes nods and winks for actual heart. Everything about the ingredients indicated that I should have loved everything about the film, but it felt slightly cold and soulless.

[fallenangle]

Back on the previous Laurel and Hardy post - I still love them too but Buster Keaton was special, a comic genius of the silent era who also translated into the sound era even if his own demons made him less successful than L&H.

There was a US(?) documentary about him a year or two ago I accidentally stumbled on (probably the Smithsonian or PBS America on Freeview) which was fascinating and sad too.

Never liked Chaplin much and Llyod as a comedian barely registered for me, it was his (stupidly?) dangerous stunt-work that defined him.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I watched The Batman last night. I should note right away that I think I have hit a point where I can safely say I’m not a massive Batman fan so that would have course influence how I see any Batman movie. This one was interesting. I didn’t think any Batman film has any business being this long and I still don’t believe it does. I don’t know why some films these days are so unnecessarily long - no film costs any more, perhaps? That would have been a limiting factor in the past. Anyway, it was too long.

I also found it unintentionally hilarious. The opening monologue had me in stitches with how seriously it took itself. I imagined sitting in a dark room as a teenager, listening to the Cure and then putting on this movie for the 100th time. It was so funny how po-faced it was. And it wasn’t even that Batman spoke like emo Batman in this one. It’s that everyone spoke like Batman. Gordon was all low and grumbly and sounded like he had never cracked a smile in his life. Anyway, there were so many laugh out loud moments.

And yet… I kind of love that they just went for that. They were sincere about it. No self-awareness. No winks to camera on how silly it all was. They wallowed in it. And I actually think I would have adored that when I was younger. I probably would have loved this film. So I have a lot of respect for them doing that.

And with that, I think they made it look fantastic and totally captured that vibe. The visuals and some of the sound too were fantastic.

But the story felt so typical to me. In ways it reminded me of The Dark Knight in that it was a crime film and the only weird element was some dude in a bat suit for some reason. I don’t know if they got any real mileage out of the villains they chose. They just made them into regular Joes but assigned Batman villain names to them. The opening did have a pretty cool looking gang with face paint and it reminded me of The Warriors but they didn’t seem to lean into that world after that one moment. So the story felt typical Batman, which made the length harder to take.

But look! It gave me lots to write about so that’s good.

I kind of look past the Emo Batman style because of where his character is in the story. He's young, the death of his parents are still heavy on his mind and he's yet to fully get a grasp on his direction. He just knows he's pissed off.
I need to watch it a second time though. I might have a change of mind...

[prinnysquad]

Back on the previous Laurel and Hardy post - I still love them too but Buster Keaton was special, a comic genius of the silent era who also translated into the sound era even if his own demons made him less successful than L&H.

There was a US(?) documentary about him a year or two ago I accidentally stumbled on (probably the Smithsonian or PBS America on Freeview) which was fascinating and sad too.

Never liked Chaplin much and Llyod as a comedian barely registered for me, it was his (stupidly?) dangerous stunt-work that defined him.

Chaplin wasn’t a sympathetic character, I found. Stan and Ollie started their films as failures and ended them as failures. That’s what made them so relatable and endearing.

Keaton was a close second for me. All I’ll say is that Keaton said that Stan was the greatest

[Dogg Thang]

I kind of look past the Emo Batman style because of where his character is in the story. He's young, the death of his parents are still heavy on his mind and he's yet to fully get a grasp on his direction. He just knows he's pissed off.
I need to watch it a second time though. I might have a change of mind...

Yeah but it felt like everyone had just lost their parents. The entire city had just lost their parents. And the camera crew had just lost their parents. The lighting crew had definitely just lost their parents. Everybody was miserable. Except maybe Colin Farrell’s character. He hasn’t yet lost both parents.

Edit: just to be clear, I think that’s okay. I admire that they really went for it. I just couldn’t help find it funny.

[fuse]

Watched No Time to Die. As some context to this: if you were to ask, I'd tell you quite plainly that I don't like Bond films. The last one I watched was Tomorrow Never Dies, which in itself was the only one of the Brosnan lot that I watched. So, much to my surprise, while I found it totally daft, I was pleasantly surprised to find it just compelling enough to keep my attention.

[randombs]

Stan and Ollie is one of those pinch me I’m dreaming, flash in the pan films - it could have gone oh, so wrong but it went so right.

The Lord of the Ringses (extended)

Watched these over the past week, often switching to the cast commentary tracks. The commentaries were hilarious:

Frodo (grasping Sam’s box of seasoning): “What is this?”
Dominic Monaghan: “It’s marijuana”

Also, the occasional “hello, beautiful” when Orlando Bloom would show up.

The cast revealed a lot more behind the scenes stuff I wasn’t aware of (admittedly I’ve only ever seen a few of the actual bonus features) and it felt a lot more personal hearing the stories as each scene played out compared to typical bonus documentaries with talking heads.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, The Batman kind of goes all in but it pulls it off. I'd still utterly love a live action film that embraces the Arkham Asylum vibe but we're deeply stuck now in grounding the world. With that in mind the world of the film is dour but it's kind of necessary in order to sell the early mindset of Bruce and the extent to which Gotham is broken, something the Nolan trilogy quickly lost focus on relying on telling rather than showing.

Speaking of:

Batman Begins
We've begun a tour of the four most recent films as the missus hasn't seen the new one yet and it's been a long time since either of us has watched its closest stablemates. The rewatch revealed Begins to still be a decent film but there's a much greater level of clumsy cheese to Bale's Batman than Pattinson's and he's in the film very little with over half the runtime unnecessarily going to origin storytelling followed by a chunk on setting Batman up in Gotham meaning the actually end plot involving Ghul and Scarecrow feels rushed and undercooked. The Narrows is a great setting for the finale though and it's a decent job of showcasing a realistic Gotham, shame it only exists in this one film. Solid film and solid start.

[Baseley09]

Tried the watch The Batman last night, found the narration a bit embarrassing, was too long, a bit dull, too dark at times to see what was happening. Didn't like Andy Serkis as Alfred.Few decent bits but couldn't finish it.

[randombs]

I, too, watched The Batman.

It’s… interesting. The tone is all over the place but - and I don’t know if this was intentional - it sort of fits with the theme of Batsy finding his feet. I agree with DT’s wonderfully accurate “everyone’s parents are dead” observation, although there are a few funny moments. One I won’t ruin, but I did like how Catwoman would say “Jesus!” whenever Batman snuck up on her.

While I do wish I’d been able to catch this in the cinema instead of watching it at home over two days with the baby pulling my attention, I took advantage by rewinding a lot of the action scenes (I watched the entire car chase twice) and the fighting stuff.

As for Batman himself, his age allowed for shenanigans and occasional goofiness that wouldn’t fly with an older version. There’s small things like him putting sunglasses on indoors because it was bright, and his short fuse meant I never quite knew when he’d get pissed off and start throwing punches. Luckily, his outfit is completely impervious to bullets. He barely registers damage from anything weaker than a shotgun. It’s a bit weird but it makes for some stunning scenes.

Otherwise, Paul Dano’s Riddler blew me away and Colin Farrell was a brilliant Penguin. Tuturro’s Falcone was great as well.

Regarding the film’s length, much this post the film is definitely too long. It’s hardly the detective film I’d been led to believe it would be, and one particular line from Batman felt like something out of SNL:

->Open Spoiler<-

“A rat with wings… like a stool pigeon”.

Overall I enjoyed it very much and can’t wait for the BR.

[Neon Ignition]

As much as fans have wanted a detective story approach to Batman for years I think part of the issue is ultimately there's never any mystery. There's no question who the villain is or his motivation so there's an element of the audience watching Batman catch them up

[Cassius_Smoke]

As much as fans have wanted a detective story approach to Batman for years I think part of the issue is ultimately there's never any mystery. There's no question who the villain is or his motivation so there's an element of the audience watching Batman catch them up

The mystery is in WHY riddler is doing it.
Ive got it to watch again so I'll maybe give my full opinion on a second watch. In cinema I enjoyed it a lot. At home I may not.