sounds like a bad war movie out there

[fflo]

The explosions in the distance, with occasional whistles & Doppler effect... diehard fireworksers, unfazed by the persistent casual rain & soggy ground. At this point in the movie our protagonists are probably holed up someplace, behind half-fallen stone walls, up against great odds & planning the next suicidal-looking move that'll turn out to be just the trick. Or are they bartering candy bars & nylons to stick their dicks in a Sophia Loren look-alike, which will happen off-camera & thus be tasteful? It's something like that.

Saw the Ypsi parade this morning. After harvesting a bunch of my backyard berries. Then hit the half-off thrifting. Just back from the new Batman movie (eh) (worse than "eh," actually).

Neighbors B&S gave me a replacement for my coffee press. I'd knocked it off the counter the other day---conveniently enough, right into a paper grocery sack, so the glass was already neatly contained. I recommend leaving open paper bags all over your kitchen. One day it'll save you a hassle.

My Independence Day weekend has been good.

I want to say something about the opening & closing of the windows, and how it gives me a kind of peace with routine, a virtual allergy of mine, psychologically---particularly regular routine; daily & regular even worse. There's something pretty danged matter-of-fact, and rational t'boot, about opening the windows in the evening & closing 'em in the morning, at this time of year, in this weather, at Mudville. It's just what you need to do. It's takin' care of business. It's all okay, and there's no pull to question it, and I actually even just barely but discernably every once in a while enjoy it---even enjoy its very matter-of-factness, which is pretty much enjoying the very routine of it. Morning. Getting up . . . going to window . . . closing window. Going to next window . . . That kind of thing. Evening now. Definitely cooler outside. Move to nearest window . . . throw it open. . . . Move to next window . . .

I'm confused about why this business feels significant to me, but it does.

Comments

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

Do tell why worse than "eh" about Batman -- I'm curious! (For the record, I thought it was nine bats out of ten, since it was nearly spot on with Batman canon and all.)

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Hey, T. Shouldn't you be in bed by now? (Shouldn't I?)

Well, car chases boring. Fight scenes boring. Vast expansive landscapes & cityscapes boring. (I have that problem more with relatively recent films & their computer shenanigans.) Characters---pretty boring! Female characters 1.5-dimensional at best. Mother completely insignificant. Bond between Bruce Wayne & girlie friend badly/barely established. Bat call device never explained. And bad job on class & race issues, with bungled attempt to depict the parents as helpers of the poor, and the ancestors---barf---as part of the underground railroad. From what I've seen of the comic books, they do a more credible job on that matter. Plus they started when our dominant cultural didn't have the benefits in the should-know-better category. At least the TV show settled for simply labelling the Waynes benefactors.

I'll say this, though: it kinda made me miss living in the city. And I didn't fall asleep.

Oh---too much sword fighting with Liam, too. (Is that part canonical?) (At least they weren't light sabres.)

It is the only Batman movie I've seen apart from the one the TV guys made. I guess I was expecting something better as a movie, since critical response has been pretty good. I was actually pretty psyched to go through the how-the-bat-cave-developed stuff and all, and was quite ready to enjoy those "birth of" aspects. They seemed overshadowed by all the boring fight & chase stuff. (I love Alfred as a character, and was pleased to see actors I like & all. And to see the future commish as a lowly sarge & all. But it wasn't enough.)

For the record: I like the fight stuff in Jackie Chan comedies...

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

You totally had me persuaded that I need to try opening my windows this evening, until I realized that the explosions outside would be even louder that way.

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I should be in bed, about an hour ago now. Or maybe two.

Anyhow, in re: Batman -- the women are NEVER dimensional in Batman, I don't think. At least not in canon -- we never really see much of his mother, ever. And girls are either camoflage (when he's Bruce the playboy), or unimportant in the scheme of things. It's a very male world, Batman's world. I know there's Batgirl/Oracle, and Catwoman, but they're not terribly important to him, per se. He can live without them, whereas I don't think he COULD survive without Alfred. It's an interesting thing, that.

I could have done without some of the car chases/fight scenes, particularly the big Batmobile chase through the city streets, myself. (I did like how Jim Gordon was given access and was the actual lychpin of the solution, though. That was pretty cool.)

Now. About his Dad and the whole class/race issue -- that's, again, something that has been brought out in the origin stories -- I think they were going for the classic Batman from the 40s here, in which his parents were killed in the Great Depression. In the comics, there have been touches of racial/class "relevance" and the whole Underground Railroad thing is straight from there. It wasn't stuck into the movie whole cloth. I think (though I don't *know*) that we're supposed to see Gotham as a timeless place, in which this is happening in the eternal "now/there", which isn't our real-life now and here.

Sword-fighting with Liam -- well, like I said in my review, I didn't know Ras had ninjas! So the whole ninja thing was a bit surprising to me. Particularly since Ras is supposed to be this shadowy immortal Middle Eastern kind of dude (approximately 600 years old) and not a Japanese guy. (I loved the teeny bit of Ken Watanabe we did get in this, though!)

Bat-signal -- the *idea* was that Gordon came up with it after seeing Carmine tied to the signal light and used the bat shape. He even says "I don't have a crime boss handy to tie to this, so I used the bat cutout" or words to that effect.

I particularly liked the fact that the villains each had their own agenda which wasn't totally crazy -- Carmine wanted to keep his power as mob boss, totally understandable. Crane/Scarecrow wanted power and money, again, understandable, though his experiments were creepy. And Ras is a medieval guy with more simplistic ideas -- kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out. So while I don't think his plot would have worked in today's world (we'd KNOW it was bioterrorism and go hunting, no?), it made perfect sense to him. And each of them was using the others to shore up his own goals. I liked that. A lot.

It was an action movie, yes, with lots of fighting and car chases, and stuff going on, but the little bits were so good that I felt as if I was getting a lot of Bat psyche for my money, a lot of good and interesting insight into who he was and how he became who he is.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

a lot of Bat psyche for my money

I like that phrase.

'Course we've already chatted a little in RL about this stuff now.

It's the call to the "back up" of bats that I think went unexplained. Which I'm told was the red thing in his shoe? The bat signal was handled well, I think. 'Cept I think I was craving that flourish of "duh-duh-duh duh-duh-duh duh" music following it, as in the TV show, when there was a transition between scenes, or to the opening credits.

I miss the campy TV version.

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

The calling of the bats, yes.... that was a trifle odd. Now that you bring it back to my mind. Yeah, the sonic "bat-call" was weird and I don't think it was really in any of the comics I ever heard of.

I liked the TV show at the time, but I am also glad that there was a serious movie.