Tuesday, June 28, 2005

(Quite Belated) Weekly Geek Rant #5

"It's been a while." Someone once said that. I don't know who or where, but they did. In fact I think I'm remembering it from a movie. You may have noticed I haven't had a Geek Rant in the recent past (I have a life! I have a life! Woohoo! 'Cept my life is work and Uni. Boohoo.) It's been more 'monthly' than 'weekly'. However, I intend to give that time frame some meaning again (I remember when weeks were weeks, and weeks that weren't weeks were just 7 days). I'll get on with it then, shall I?

I'm sure it's no surprise to you all that I'm a) a fan of comic books; and b) a fan of comic book movies - providing they're done well. On Sunday (26th of June) Kirsten, Geoff and myself went and saw Batman Begins. This movie does what's called 'resetting the continuity'. Apart from the obvious fact that certain characters and locations are the same, this film bears no relation to any of the Batman films that have come before it. Nor does it tie directly into any comic continuity, thought it draws story inspiration from several sources. So this is essentially telling a 'new' Batman origin and subsequent stories from scratch.

Cool Rants: I loved this movie. And I found a lot to like in it. Here goes.

• The acting - pretty good all around. No Oscar-winning performances, but believable. Christian Bale makes an excellent Bruce Wayne, and a pretty good Batman - I'm not sure if I like Michael Keaton as Batman better or not, but Bale beats Keaton in the Wayne stakes. Katie Holmes - she's OK (except for Tom) but doesn't have that much to do. I'm sure Geoff would give her a higher rating. Actually that's probably not all he'd give her... Morgan Freeman, like Holmes (Katie not Sherlock), doesn't have a whole lot to do but at least looks like he's having fun in the role. Gary Oldman doesn't do anything vastly taxing either, but I'm always amazed at how different each of his characters can be. I rarely think of one of his previous characters when I see him on screen. He's a chameleon. I was a bit disappointed that Ken Watanabe's role was as short as it was. Liam Neeson is kind of like a bad-ass Qui-Gon Jinn 'now with added attitude'. And Michael Caine as Alfred is very good and has a number of good quips, but also a very serious part to play in the story too.
  
  
• The costume - excellent! The Batsuit and most of the associated gadgets are explained, and you get to see Bruce make the damn thing - something that Spider-Man should have shown. It's also great to see neither Batman or his suit is invulnerable (though the suit is fireproof Nomex with knifeproof Kevlar fabric woven through it. There's also bulletproof armour plating in vital areas and the suit itself acts a trauma-liner for absorbing the kinetic energy of projectiles that impact the armour. Am I geeky enough for ya?). The suit is very understated, being mostly black with only the utility belt being a brassy colour. No big yellow "aim here" Bat symbol on the chest.
  
  
• The music - I love Hans Zimmer. Kirsten likes James Newton Howard (so do I actually). The score for Batman Begins is a collaboration between both composers. That said, it's much more Hans Zimmer then James Newton Howard in my opinion. Not that I mind, since Zimmer is among my favourite composers. I'm listening to the soundtrack as I right this blog post. The only thing I thought was lacking was a definite Batman theme. Though this seems to be a thing with comic book movies lately - X-Men, Hulk, Spider-Man - none of these really has a theme that sticks in your head and you can whistle like, say John William's theme for the Superman movies. Overall though, very very good and certainly created the right atmosphere.
  
  
• The Batmobile - I have to admit, when I first saw the new Batmobile in the trailers for the movie, I was a bit dubious. But it has grown on me, and after seeing it in action I give it a big thumbs up. Hope they don't revamp it too much for the next film, as I don't think it needs a revamp that much.
  
  
• The 'realism' - of course no comic-book movie is ever going to be real. That said, Batman Begins goes to a reasonable amount of trouble to explain how stuff works, and Bruce gets cuts and bruises and is obviously a mortal man, not a superhero like Superman. Of course, as Geoff commented after the movie, the attraction of heroes like Batman to boys and men is that he is just a man, and that any of us could be Batman. Provided we had billions of dollars and could be bothered spending twelve or so years training ourselves in just about every martial art in the world.
  

Not-so-cool Rants: Actually, I really don't have anything much to put in here. Apart from the lack of a strong theme that I talked about before, I suppose the only other thing that I thought might have been differently, not necessarily better, was Gotham City. In the comics, Gotham City has always been, well, Gothic (except for the rebuilding after the No Man's Land events - see the end of this blog post for more info). While there was some Gothic architecture in this film, I didn't think there was enough, and I would have liked to see some spindly, spiky churches and other buildings with gargoyles mixed in with the skyscrapers.

So I think this is probably my favourite Batman film ever made so far. I still hold the Tim Burton directed 'Batman' and 'Batman Returns' in high esteem though. Those two other Batman films directed by Joel Schumacher (I won't even do them the honour of mentioning their names), well the sooner they are forgotten, the better. I don't think it's really a spoiler for those who haven't seen the movie yet (and why the hell not?) to say that the next movie will have a certain Clown Prince of Crime as the main villian. However, for BB3 (Batman Begins 3, for want of a better name, not Big Brother 3) I would like to see a movie based on the No Man's Land storyline. For those that are geeky enough to want to know, but aren't geeky enough to already know, here's a brief synopsis of the whole NML saga. I certainly think the critical elements could be made into a single film. So go and see Batman Begins. I did. You'll enjoy it. I did :)

"I'm Batman!"

P.S. Two weeks from now. Fantasic Four movie. Expect a Geek Rant on it. Expect it damn it!

Sunday, June 19, 2005

It's here!

It's been a while coming, but it's finally done. Matt's page about his Star Wars themed 27th birthday party is up!

Since the page isn't a regular blog page, you can't leave comments on it, so please come back and leave your comments on this post. I'm very interested to see everyone's thoughts :)

Click the link below to view the page:

http://mattyb.customer.netspace.net.au/matt/rotm.html

May the Force be with you!

Saturday, June 18, 2005

It's coming...

It's what you've all been waiting for. Pictures and commentary from Matt's legenedary 27th birthday party. Well, the wait is almost over. In the next day or two all will be revealed here on this very site. Stay tuned for an annoucement here soon...

I'd also like to take a'mushy' moment and say that I love my fiancee very much!

Monday, June 13, 2005

I've been busy!

Hello everyone. You may have noticed a lack of updates recently to my blog. Well, I've been busy! Basically I blame Uni. I've had a big assignment to do, and an exam to study for (which is tomorrow). Plus there was this little matter of my Birthday party that I had to help organise :)

Speaking of that event, tomorrow I'll be starting work on a page dedicated to just that - my party! When it's ready, you can expect to see a small post about it on this page. Stay tuned...