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Movies: Hellboy II and The Dark Knight
mood: 
awake
awakeHellboy II - The Golden Army: To give you an idea of where I'm coming from with this thing, I loved the first Hellboy, and I've never read the comics. That being said, Hellboy II did not disappoint. It tells the story of how, in ancient times, Elves and Humans went to war against each other. The Elves had a Golden Army of unbeatable soldiers crafted to defeat their foes but, seeing the devastation these creatures wrought, he struck a peace with the Humans. He sealed away the Golden Army, broke the crown that controlled them into three parts, and gave one of these parts to the humans. They determined that the Humans would keep to the cities, and the Elves would keep to the forests, and there was peace for a very long time. Modern times roll around, and the Elven Prince decides he's had enough of the Humans destroying the world, and he's going to be rid of them. Enter Hellboy to save the day.
What I loved most about this movie was the sheer level and amount of costuming. I've gotten so sick of seeing a bunch of actors in front of a green screen. It was cool to see for the first couple of movies that did it, but now it just seems lazy. Especially when you can make a movie like this and have everything be so much cooler! Don't get me wrong, this movie used CGI, but they only used it would it would be literally impossible to do it any other way. And, when they did do it, I never really noticed. I never had a moment of "whoop, CGI-guy!" Your eyes were always so drawn to the art of all the rest of it, that you never thought about the few CGI portions. Let's have more like this!
Suffice it to say, this is much of what you came to expect from the first movie. A lot of great action, a lot of great laughs. Old characters return, but they're enhanced by some great new ones. Also, I loved the story. In the first movie, it was a more traditional "Good guy versus Bad guy" deal. In this one, I found myself not only empathizing with the bad guy, but I didn't even disagree with him! Sure, I rooted for Hellboy, but I wasn't far from rooting for the baddie either! All-in-all, just fantastic and fun. You have to see this if, for no other reason, than for all of the new and wonderous creatures that were created.
The Dark Knight: Jesus! This movie was intense! Literally, everything it ought to be. We've all seen the previews, we all know what it's about. Batman versus the Joker. It's everything I wanted and so much more. Heath Ledger puts Jack Nicholson to shame with his performance as the Joker (of course, no way anybody could have gotten away with something this dark back then). He goes full-tilt crazy even beyond what you're expecting him to do. This is true commitment to a role! There are times when he makes you laugh and there are times when he makes you shield your eyes, and those times are not mutually exclusive. I could go on and on forever.
Fights, special effects, makeup ... I'd say even story surpass Batman Begins. It's semi-long (2 1/2 hours), but any shorter would not have been enough. Which brings up another point I'd like to make:
Spider-man and some of the X-men movies were either ruined or nearly ruined (depending on who you ask) by the inclusion of too many plot lines. It's plan and simple overreaching, that doesn't allow you to fully explore each plot line's true potential. Beyond that, it's plan greedy stupidity. That being said, Dark Knight has at least 4 distinct plot lines, with several other sub plots, and each and every one of them is necessary. There's not a bit of it that I would say "If they'd just cut out that part it would have been such a better movie". Dark Knight is such a nice, tightly woven story that all of it is necessary, and nothing is superfluous. This is how things should be done.
My one complaint in this entire movie is Christian Bale's "Batman Voice". I swear, MY throat hurt listening to him, and there were times when he was essentially unintelligible. However, it was only here and there that it was noticed, and it's literally the only negative comment I have to make. Seriously, I know I've said this before, but drop what you're doing and see this movie! This easily makes it into the Top Ten Greatest Comic Book Movies, and possibly makes it into the Top Three. Go. Now.
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God, I've got to start talking about something other than movies I've seen lately, or I'm going to have to change the name of this thing. You can fully expect more talk about comic books or video games in the near future.
Yeah, I had a couple problems with Batman: Dark Knight... but the MOST stand-out was certainly that goddamned batman voice. It didn't help that all of Batman's lines were annoying and cliche anyways... (Batman had the worst dialogue of ANYBODY and then on top of it he's doing that funny voice? Come on!)
My other complaints are VERY VERY minor.
1. The mayor... first he's not important, than he is, then he isn't, then he is, then he isn't and then he just disappears from the story.
Same goes for the crime-boss guy... Mironi/Moroni guy.
2. Liu agrees to be a rat,... and we see him a few more times after that, but then NOTHING. No one ever brings it up again.. its just a reason he's NOT imprisoned at county.. thats it. None of the people hes gonna rat on ever learn about it AND he never rats.. I mean.. come on, wtf?
3. This takes place after Batman Beyond.. so I understand wanting to have Scarecrow in there for a cameo... but he's free AND totally sane?!? Uh... apparently you dont remember how the last movie ended if the writers think that makes
sense.
What I DID like was...
Maggie Gyllenhall is WAY better than Katie Holmes. WAY better.
The story was complicated,.. maybe even convoluted, but still pretty damned tight with LOTS of character development. Sadly, not much Batman development or Bruce Wayne development, but Joker was supreme, the fall/creation of Two-Face sublime and lots of tension, fate, sorrow, stress and heartbreak! Great great job.
I am TOTALLY with you on lots of superhero/comic/action flicks trying to combine too many storylines. I have been bitching about that ever since Batman 2, actually. I think the WORST offender is still X-Men 3, though. WTF WAS that TRAVESTY?!
goose bumps!